Congratulations to the 10 healthcare, school and university public safety, security and emergency management pros who have been named this year’s Director of the Year finalists! Those who made the cut hail from all over the United States, from New Jersey to California, Texas to Minnesota and all points in between.
The winners and runners-up will be announced at Campus Safety Conference East, which will be held July 18-20 at the Hyatt Regency Dulles in Herdon, Va. Complete coverage of the winners will appear this fall in Campus Safety magazine and on CampusSafetyMagazine.com.
Now check out the finalists!
Phillip Caldwell
Chief of Police, Community Hospital Anderson, Anderson, Ind.
Notable achievements:
- Transitioned the Security Services Department to a police department
- Worked with IT to switch over all security cameras to IP and onto in-house servers that reduced the cost by more than 38 percent as compared to buying from a vendor
- Reduced hospital vehicle fleet repair costs by 40 percent by having minor maintenance done in-house
Mark Clark
Chief of Police, Val Verde Unified School District, Perris, Calif.
Notable achievements:
- Implemented professional work attire for employees
- Provided staff with wide variety of safety equipment, including duty belts, flashlights, handcuffs and mini trauma kits
- Improved access control and visitor management by working towards making campuses keyless and updating school front lobbies
Steve Ellis
Coordinator of Campus Security and Safety, Corona-Norco Unified School District, Norco, Calif.
Notable achievements:
- Researched, developed and implemented Project Safety Net, a comprehensive school safety initiative
- Developed collaboration with community partners to share responsibilities and expenses to help deliver cost-effective training to staff
- Completed $2 million upgrades to the district’s video surveillance system to include high-resolution cameras at all school sites
Robert Field Jr.
Director of Security, Safety and Emergency Preparedness, Robert Wood Johnson Hospital, Hamilton, N.J.
Notable achievements:
- Minimized the need for security officer responses by 42 percent since the fourth quarter of 2016
- Applied for and awarded state grants to pay for radios and other communications equipment
- Revamped the workplace violence prevention program, which increased employee awareness by 17 percent compared to 2016
Ken Harr
Corporate Director of Safety, Security and Emergency Management, Ballad Health (formerly Mountain States Health Alliance), Johnson City, Tenn.
Notable achievements:
- Standardized all uniforms, badges, patches and leather gear and armed all security officers in the system
- Saved $500,000 by allowing in-house officers to cover shifts at different facilities, which eliminated unneeded contract labor
- Reduced officer turnover by 15 percent by hiring the right officers
Tim Knight
Safety and Security Director, Berkeley County School District, Moncks Corner, S.C.
Notable achievements:
- Created an annual SRO summer training program for active shooters, de-escalation, defensive tactics, bomb threats, child abuse and sexual assault, CPR and more
- Created school safety committees comprised of assistant principals, counselors, nurses, head custodians, nutrition managers and CPR-certified teachers in every school
- Upgraded access control systems so access is limited to employees with district ID badges
Stephen Medeiros
Chief of Campus Police and Security, HealthFirst Family Care Center, Fall River, Mass.
Notable achievements:
- Created the campus police and security department
- Took over management of access control and video surveillance from IT
- Increased foot patrol and static assignments that significantly reduced reports of suspicious persons and activity on campus; between October 2016 and September 2017 there were no reports of incidents of violent crime and only two property crimes
Rick Morris
Chief of Campus Security, North Greenville University, Tigerville, S.C.
Notable achievements:
- Hosted several special training events that included Greenville County Sherriff’s Office SWAT Teams, South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) and other agencies and organizations
- Helped develop a joint dispatch system with two other universities to provide 24/7 dispatch
- Initiated an online parking permit purchasing/traffic citation program that increased student compliance and revenue
Ed Reynolds
Chief of Police, University of North Texas, Denton, Texas
Notable achievements:
- Helped develop policies and procedures in response to passage of Texas’ campus carry law
- Emphasized officer recruitment, raising pay levels to attract the best candidates and utilizing in-house marketing to save on recruitment costs
- Pizza with Police events helped foster good relations with students and encourage them to discuss their concerns with campus police
Curt Schmidt
Director of Public Safety, Minneapolis Community and Technical College, Minneapolis, Minn.
Notable achievements:
- Championed the school’s Green Dot initiative to build inroads to the many communities on campus
- Trained and equipped officers with Naloxone nasal spray so they can respond to opioid overdoses
- Created the bike patrol to improve outreach to the community and greater presence in the parking garage
