Colleen Copple is the co-founder of Strategic Applications International (SAI) and Servant Forge, a non-profit addressing humanitarian issues. SAI has been intensely involved in criminal justice and police reform efforts over the last 15 years. SAI has facilitated over a dozen forums and publications for the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services on emerging issues in policing, including the President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing in 2015. Colleen has played a significant role in the facilitation, key learnings, and publications resulting from the forums. Since the death of Michael Brown, she has been part of SAI’s numerous consultations with communities, states, and universities working on police reform efforts and the drafting of recommendations and final reports on next steps.

Through Servant Forge, she builds the capacity of indigenous non-profits to mobilize communities to address HIV/AIDS in Swaziland, gender-based violence and women empowerment in Kenya and affordable housing in Rwanda.

She served as a full-time consultant with the U.S. Department of Justice, Community Capacity Development Office for five years (2004-2008). Her work at CCDO focused on creating national strategic partnerships for the Weed and Seed Initiative. The Department of Justice nominated her CCDO efforts for the Kennedy School of Government Innovations in Government Award in 2007. Ms. Copple served as a former Weed and Seed site coordinator in Salt Lake City, UT, in the mid-’90s and brought her collaborative and innovative style to her work at CCDO.

Before launching SAI in 2004, Ms. Copple served as Senior Advisor to the President for New Initiatives at the National Crime Prevention Council. Ms. Copple came to NCPC in 1999 as the Associate Deputy Director. She oversaw several responsibilities during her five-year tenure at NCPC, including Youth Programs, Training, and the Crime Prevention Coalition of America.

Ms. Copple joined NCPC after shepherding a series of successful community initiatives in Salt Lake City, Utah. These include – the Glendale Community Mobilization Project, a community-based gang prevention project recognized by OJJDP as a national model; the Comprehensive Communities Program, recognized by Attorney General Janet Reno for its innovative design in reinventing government; the Weed and Seed program, which generated over $10 million in resources committed to her neighborhood to address youth violence; and the COPS Methamphetamine Initiative which created a comprehensive response to methamphetamine. Ms. Copple has over 25 years of experience working with communities to do systems strengthening at the local, state, and national levels to improve police transformation, crime, violence, and substance abuse outcomes. She and her husband, James E. Copple, love sailing together, almost as much as the eight children and 24 grandchildren they share.