Pacific TTA Team
TTA Liaison: William "Bill" Taylor
Bill Taylor is a subject matter expert and advisor in the Center for Justice Research and Innovation (JRI) at CNA. Mr. Taylor has recently worked on the CNA team that completed the Racial Bias Audit for the Albany, NY, Police Department. Mr. Taylor also serves as a liaison and advisor to three Department of Justice (DOJ) programs. Taylor is assigned as the Pacific Region TTA liaison for the DOJ Project Safe Neighborhoods Program (PSN) and as a strategic site liaison (SSL) to the Shreveport, LA Public Safety Partnership (PSP) through the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) and the Smart Policing Initiative with the Suffolk County, NY Sheriff’s Office. Mr. Taylor participated in a recently completed Racial Equity Audit of the Worcester, MA Police Department.
Mr. Taylor previously was the police superintendent at the Lowell, MA, Police Department. He is an innovative, results-oriented senior management professional with 36 years of experience and leadership in law enforcement.
Mr. Taylor also has extensive experience developing and implementing problem-solving policing activities with police department personnel, neighborhood residents, and many partners, both in and out of government.
Analyst: Heather Perez
Heather Perez is a Training and Technical Coordinator for the School of Criminal Justice, Michigan State University (MSU). Over the past 15 years at MSU, Ms. Perez has worked on the Project Safe Neighborhoods National Evaluation and Training and Technical Assistance team, Drug Market Intervention Training and Technical Assistance Initiative, Comprehensive Anti-Gang Initiative, Innovations Suite Training and Technical Assistance team, various National Training and Technical Assistance requests and an international exchange with Chile. Ms. Perez has contributed to various independent research projects as well as served as a Department of Justice Peer Reviewer for eight years. In most recent efforts, Ms. Perez has assisted with the development of the Innovations Suite Researcher-Practitioner Fellows Academy, Violence Reduction Assessment Tool, and Violent Crime Reduction Course.
Prior to joining the research faculty at MSU, Ms. Perez has worked for the Institute for Law and Justice and the National Criminal Justice Reference Service. With a Master’s Degree in Criminal Justice from the University of Nebraska Omaha, Ms. Perez has over 25 years experience with evaluation research and design and training and technical assistance.
