Creating an Interjurisdictional Taskforce to Address Emerging Trends

Tracy Senica

Tracy has been a Cook County Assistant State’s Attorney since 2000.  She was assigned to the felony trial division for the majority of her career and then spent 6 years in the Sexual Assault Domestic Violence Unit focusing on sexual offenses with child victims. For the past 4 years Tracy has worked as a Supervisor in the Juvenile Justice Unit where she supervises multiple attorneys.  Tracy is also a faculty member of the Illinois Juvenile Prosecutors’ Institute and a board member of Redeploy Illinois.

Mark Werner

Section Chief, Cook County Juvenile Probation

Mark has been employed with the Circuit Court of Cook County Juvenile Probation Department for the last 23 years where he has served in several capacities in the Department and is currently Section Chief. He started as a field probation officer on the south side of Chicago before being promoted to Supervisor and eventually Deputy Chief.  He has led the Department’s efforts with mentally ill and high risk youth in the past.

Mark has also served as the department’s liaison to the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services and co-chairs the County’s Dually Involved Steering Committee which has been responsible for many reforms with our dual status youth.  He is also a dual status practice network member for the RFK National Resource Center for Juvenile Justice, along with recently chairing their efforts in Probation Systems Reform. Mark has his Bachelor of Arts in Education and Master of Science in Administration of Justice.

Kevin Sellers

Sergeant, Chicago Police Department

Sergeant Kevin Sellers is a 25 year veteran of the Chicago Police Department. He started his career as a patrol officer in 1997 in the Englewood District. During his time in the Englewood District, he worked as a uniformed beat officer and tactical officer where he was tasked with investigating narcotics and gang crimes along with incidents involving aggravated batteries with firearms and conducting search warrants. In 2008, he was detailed to the Bureau of Organized Crime, Narcotics Unit. There he was tasked with conducting narcotics investigations, undercover purchases, and criminal drug conspiracy investigations. In 2015, he was assigned to a F.B.I.-D.E.A. Narcotics Task Force. During this time, he conducted investigations related to large scale drug trade organizations which included Title III wiretaps and enforcing all local and federal narcotics laws. In 2017, he was promoted to the rank of sergeant and was assigned to the Gresham District as a patrol sergeant. In late 2020, he was assigned to the Bureau of Detectives, Central Investigations Division, where he currently serves as a supervisor for the Vehicular Hijacking Task Force which investigates all vehicular hijacking incidents. He has a Bachelor’s Degree in public safety management and a Master’s Degree in public safety administration from Calumet College of St. Joseph. He has been a guest speaker at the 2021 Illinois Tactical Officers’ Association, 2022 South Suburban Association Chiefs of Police Conference, 2022 Chicago CALEA Conference, and various city speaking engagements on vehicular hijackings.

Ronald L. DeWald, Jr. is a federal prosecutor in Chicago, Illinois.  He joined the United States Attorney Office for the Northern District of Illinois in 2004, and is currently the Counsel to the U.S. Attorney for violent crime matters.  Ron is responsible for overseeing Project Safe Neighborhoods and other federal, state, and local collaborative initiatives involving law enforcement, offender intervention, and crime prevention strategies for the district.   Prior to his federal service, Ron was an Assistant State’s Attorney for the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office in Chicago, Illinois, where he worked for 10 years.

Ron received a B.A. in Economics from Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, before receiving his J.D. and M.B.A. from DePaul University in Chicago.  He is also an adjunct lecturer in criminology at the University of Illinois at Chicago and at DePaul University.

Continuing Legal Education Credits: 1.0 hours

NDAA has applied for CLE in Alabama, California, Illinois, Kansas, North Carolina, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Virginia, Texas, New York, Minnesota and New York.

Zoom will log each attendee’s “time in session” for the webinar. All attendees who sign into the webinar and complete the session will be sent a copy of the PowerPoint presentation, speaker biography, and a Uniform CLE Certificate from NDAA staff following the event.

Attendees must self-submit this course for approval in their home state. All attorneys are responsible for any fees associated with CLE filing. Attorneys seeking CLE credit should contact their state bar associations for more information.  General questions or additional information regarding CLE credit can be directed to Project Coordinator, Mary Stechschulte at mstechschulte@ndaajustice.org.

Prosecutors (state and local, federal, military, and tribal), law enforcement personnel, paralegals with prosecutor’s offices and other members of the prosecution team.