The Office of the Chief of Staff, headed by Marc Schindler, oversees the following departments:
- Office of Research and Evaluation (Director - John Irvine)
- Office of Communications (Director - Eric Solomon)
- Office of Equity and Inclusion (Executive Director - Tiana Davis)
- Office of Fair Practices (Director - Sherrie Howell)
- Office of the Inspector General (Inspector General - Robin Brady-Slifer)
- Office of Professional Training and Education (Director - Denise Victory)
Marc Schindler
Assistant Secretary and Chief of Staff
Marc Schindler is the Assistant Secretary and Chief of Staff. In this capacity, he works directly with the Secretary of DJS to advise on and implement initiatives, reforms and policies that are designed to improve the lives of youth in Maryland and move the agency forward. Marc comes to DJS with extensive and varied experience in the youth justice field, including as an attorney, public administrator, grant maker, advocate, and researcher. He comes to DJS after serving 10 years as the Executive Director of the Justice Policy Institute (JPI), a national research and policy organization with expertise in juvenile and criminal justice issues. JPI has worked extensively in Maryland, issuing more than 20 reports on various justice issues in the state, including documenting the state’s extreme racial disparities in young people incarcerated in the state’s prisons. Marc also worked from 2005-2010 at the DC Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services (DYRS) where he served as General Counsel, Chief of Staff, and Interim Director, helping to lead the agency’s reform efforts. In addition, he worked for almost a decade as a staff attorney with the Youth Law Center, a national civil rights law firm advocating on behalf of children and youth in juvenile justice and child welfare systems across the country. Marc began his legal career in Maryland, serving as a public defender representing children in Baltimore’s juvenile court in the 1990s.
John Irvine
Director, Office of Research and Evaluation
John Irvine serves as Director of the Office of Research and Evaluation. The Office helps ensure that the Department’s policies, programs, strategic plans, assessment, and initiatives are well supported by timely and accurate data, analysis, and research. The Office creates management, evaluation, and outcome reports for DJS leadership and key stakeholders, and partners with university researchers on in-depth research and evaluation projects. The office produces the DJS Data Resource guide - a benchmark, all-encompassing annual report on DJS youth and programs.
John began his State career in 1997 at the Department of Human Services as a policy analyst specializing in strategic planning and performance measurement. He developed DHS DataStat, an early State agency-level executive performance review, and worked with local DSS offices in successfully applying for Malcolm Baldrige Quality Awards. John has been with DJS for twenty years, starting as Assistant Director, and has been Director of Research and Evaluation since 2005. He earned a BA in philosophy from St. Mary’s College of Maryland.
Eric Solomon
Director of Communications
Eric Solomon serves as the Director of Communications and the official spokesperson for the Department of Juvenile Services (DJS). Solomon develops and oversees all internal and external communications strategies, responds to the media, Public Information Act requests, crisis situations, and regularly coordinates messaging with the Governor’s Office and oversees the Special Projects and Website team. Solomon has spoken at many conferences about the importance of media relations in the juvenile justice field and in 2013, he was instrumental in receiving Best in Maryland honors from the Public Relations Society of America for DJS-TV.
Solomon has more than 30 years of Communications experience and has worked for DJS for more than seven years. Prior to his experience with the State, he worked for the Howard County Council and also for a national non-profit to keep youth under the age of 18 years old out of the adult criminal justice system. He was the recipient of two Golden Thinker Awards from the North American Precis Syndicate (NAPS), for 282 and 191 placements of juvenile justice TV stories. Solomon is a graduate from Monmouth University in West Long Branch, NJ.
Tiana Davis
Executive Director, Office of Equity & Inclusion
Tiana Davis serves as Executive Director of the Office of Equity and Inclusion for the Maryland Department of Juvenile Services (DJS). Her role is to operationalize principles of institutional fairness and equity in agency decision making, and to provide state-level oversight of equity initiatives statewide. The office includes family engagement, community and youth engagement, and victim services.
Tiana is a proud native of Baltimore and comes to us after serving as Policy Director of Equity and Diversion at the Center for Children’s Law and Policy (CCLP). In this capacity, Tiana worked with national, state, and local leaders to eliminate racial and ethnic disparities in the youth justice system. Prior to joining CCLP, Tiana served as the Director of Community Programming for the Mayor’s Office on Criminal Justice in Baltimore City, Maryland. Prior to her time with the Mayor’s Office, Tiana served as the Disproportionate Minority Contact (DMC) Coordinator for Baltimore County, where she worked intensively with a group of local stakeholders to address racial disparities in the juvenile justice system. Tiana earned a Master of Social Work degree from the University of Maryland and a Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology from St. Mary’s College of Maryland.
Visit the
Office of Equity and Inclusion for more information.
Sherrie Howell
Director, Office of Fair Practices
Sherrie T. Howell is the Director of the Office of Fair Practices and Equal Employment Opportunity. This office provides oversight and coordination of all federal and state equal employment opportunity regulations, practices, and policies. Sherrie has more than 25 years of EEO experience. She came to her current position as Director of the Office of Fair Practices after serving for two and a half years as the Equal Employment Opportunity Officer under the previous Director of Fair Practices.
Sherrie is a 1992 graduate of the University of Baltimore School of Law, where she also obtained her Master's Degree in Legal and Ethical Studies in 1985. She completed her undergraduate studies at Frostburg State University in 1983. She came to DJS after a diverse and varied career in law ranging from operating a solo law practice for twenty years to teaching law-related classes at the Community College and High School levels.
Robin Brady-Slifer
Inspector General
Robin Brady-Slifer monitors all DJS-operated facilities and DJS-licensed programs both in-state and out-of-state as well as DJS's internal operations. The Office of the Inspector General is charged with investigating all incidents that occur in any program with DJS youth. The Inspector General directly supervises the Office of Internal Auditing, Office of Quality Assurance, Investigative Unit, Gang Intelligence and the Office of Child Advocacy.
Denise Victory
Director, Office of Professional Training and Education
The Professional Training and Education Unit (PTEU) is responsible for the supervision, coordination, and delivery of entry level and in-service training programs for the Department of Juvenile Services. The unit is also responsible for providing staff development and process enhancements in accordance with the Maryland Police and Correctional Training Commissions' regulations and departmental policies by providing efficient and effective programs and services.
