Jessica Toliver, Interim Executive Director

Jessica Toliver, M.P.P., has more than two decades of experience within the field of criminal justice. Through her work, Ms. Toliver has helped local law enforcement agencies: enhance community relationships and services; efficiently allocate department resources by identifying and implementing cost-saving strategies; and improve systems and tools to foster internal and external legitimacy.

Before establishing Justice1 Consulting, Ms. Toliver served as the Director of BJA’s National Training and Technical Assistance Center (NTTAC), where she led a team of 14 individuals and oversaw the coordination and implementation of 35 active TTA engagements across the United States. Prior to that position she served as PERF’s (Police Executive Research Forum) Director of Technical Assistance for more than ten years. There, Ms. Toliver was responsible for providing management expertise on issues that directly impact public safety, including implementation of research-based policing initiatives, evaluation of existing policies and practices on a wide range of criminal justice topics (e.g., officer safety and wellness, improvements in homicide investigations and case closures, immigrant community outreach), and identification of promising practices associated with the use of emerging law enforcement tools and technologies such as body worn cameras, drones, and facial recognition technology.

Ms. Toliver also served as a Program Manager at the Lafayette Group consulting firm, where she managed the design and delivery of the national DHS/DOJ Fusion Center Technical Assistance Services Program. Ms. Toliver led a multi-disciplinary team of subject matter experts and was directly responsible for creation and delivery of workshops for intelligence fusion center personnel across the nation; topics included Concept of Operations (CONOPS) development, Governance, Critical Infrastructure Protection, Health Security, and the law enforcement Fusion Liaison Officer Program implementation plan.

During her initial PERF tenure, Ms. Toliver served as a research associate and was responsible for all aspects of project research, planning, and execution of events. She contributed to the following research projects and publications: Strategies to Thwart the Stop Snitching Phenomenon; Enhancing the Effectiveness of Intelligence Fusion Centers: A View from the Perspective of Law Enforcement; Promoting Effective Homicide Investigations; Police Management of Mass Demonstrations: Identifying Issues and Successful Approaches; and Protecting Your Community from Terrorism, Strategies for Local Law Enforcement, Volume 6.  Ms. Toliver has also served as a homeland security policy analyst within the Center for Best Practices at the National Governors Association.

Ms. Toliver also actively serves as a Steering Committee Member for the 30×30 Initiative, as an Advisory Board member for BUZZ Technologies, as a Career Advisor for the University of Richmond Alumni Program, and as Team Parent for her daughter’s Junior Varsity Volleyball Team at her high school.  She has a master’s degree in public policy (M.P.P.) from the University of Michigan, Ford School of Public Policy, and a B.A. in Political Science and Journalism from the University of Richmond, with a minor in Women’s Studies.