Panel Members

Gwendolyn Chunn is the retired Executive Director of the Juvenile Justice Institute, Center for Criminal Justice Research and International Initiatives, Department of Criminal Justice at North Carolina Central University (NCCU). She served as the Director of Youth Services (DYS) Department of Health and Human Services from 1989-1999. After DYS, she was named Executive Management Development Coordinator for the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services before joining the Institute at NCCU. Ms. Chunn has served on a number of civic and professional commissions, boards, and organizations. After having been elected to the Executive Committee for more than a decade, she was elected the President for the American Correctional Association (ACA) and began her term in August 2004. Ms. Chunn is the recipient of numerous awards and honors and most notably the E.R. Cass Correctional Achievement Award, the ACA’s highest award. Ms. Chunn also has served as a resource person for the National Institute of Corrections’ Training Academy in Aurora, Colorado for a number of years.

Carroll Ann Ellis is the director of the Victim Services Division of the Fairfax County (VA) Police Department. Ms. Ellis conducts programs addressing the needs of crime victims. She also provides technical assistance programs on topics related to victim assistance issues, including community intervention systems, police-based homicide support groups, and law enforcement standards for responding to victims of domestic violence. Ms. Ellis, who holds a master's degree in psychology, is a nationally recognized expert on the impact homicide has on family members. She has taught at the FBI National Academy, the National Victim Academy, the Northern Virginia Community College, Johns Hopkins University, the Lutheran Washington Consortium of Colleges, and the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center. The best-selling book Obsession by John E Douglas and Mark Olshaker, as well as the video From Fury to Forgiveness: The Disappearance of Susie Jaeger, produced by Primary Focus, feature Ms. Ellis' work. Ms. Ellis has written numerous articles and textbook chapters on victims issues, including contributions to Forensic Emergency Medicine, edited by Jonathan S. Olshaker et al. Appointed by the Governor of Virginia, Ms. Ellis recently served on the Virginia Tech Review Panel that investigated the circumstances related to the tragic shootings at Virginia Tech.

Steven T. McFarland, an attorney, is the director of the Task Force for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives at the U.S. Department of Justice. Previously, he served prisoners abroad as vice president for programme and partnership for Prison Fellowship International. Mr. McFarland helped to advise U.S. foreign policymakers on religious persecution issues as the first executive director of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. As the director of the Center for Law and Religious Freedom, he advocated and litigated for religious liberty in the United States. Mr. McFarland also practiced commercial and first amendment law in Seattle, Washington.