Information Center: Will you give a brief background of your career leading up to your position as NIC's Chief of the Academy Division?

Chief Hadnot: Following nine years of Active Duty in the U.S. Navy, I entered federal law enforcement with the Department of Navy Corrections at Naval Consolidated Brig Miramar, in San Diego, CA in 2007.  Between 2007 and 2014, I held the following positions: Vocational Director, Training Director, and Programs & Industry Director.  I really feel fortunate I was entrusted with the positions at Brig Miramar that allowed me to learn many aspects of corrections and how they all support reentry.  It became apparent to me the importance of education and vocational training was directly related to successful reentry and employment upon release.  I was presented with the amazing opportunity to join NIC in August of 2014 and after discussing the possibilities with my family, we decided to accept the position and relocate to Colorado. This transition to NIC has provided me a new opportunity to dedicate my efforts to my passion of education and training and make a difference in the corrections field.

Information Center: What is your vision for the Academy and how does it fit with the Institute’s mission?  Where do you see NIC five years from now and do you see the Academy’s role changing over those five years?

Chief Hadnot: My vision for the Academy is to provide top notch service to our correctional customers and continue to provide innovative approaches to training, leadership, and cognitive behavior treatment across all disciplines of corrections directly supporting NIC’s mission.  I envision the Academy Division staff being supported to pursue their career doing what they love, making an impact in the field. Five years from now, I see NIC continuing to introduce new research, evidence based practices, and strategies to help the field - involving an even greater number of customers.  The Academy’s role will be to continue to promote and model effective training in corrections, taking into account adult learning principles and ensuring we are effectively meeting our goals.    We will provide assistance to help agencies with assessments and implementation of programs.   By engaging in this type of work and continuing to refine our craft at the Academy, we will support the field of corrections to effectively train the correctional workforce of tomorrow.

Information Center:  The Academy puts on NIC’s annual Virtual Conference. What do you see as the conference’s value or impact on the corrections field?

Chief Hadnot: The virtual conference has tremendous value to the field as it allows agencies from across the nation to come together and learn from each other.  We have presenters from all disciplines that bring evidence based practices, new topics, and lessons learned to other corrections professionals.  The overall impact is huge!  We are able to provide this conference at a low cost to NIC and provide each agency in the field unlimited registrations at no cost to them.  Due to reduced budgets, many corrections agencies are not able to send staff to conferences or external training – or have limits on how many staff they can send to those professional development opportunities.  The virtual conference provides an opportunity for anyone to share in the latest trends in the field of corrections.  As we continue to grow this conference, we are seeing the numbers rise each year and the technology continues to improve. 

Information Center: This year’s topic is Leading with Innovation. Can you explain more about what that is? 

Chief Hadnot: Many agencies are so busy with overcrowding issues, budget constraints, compliance and inspections, et cetera, they aren’t able to stay on top of cutting edge efforts occurring across the country in the field of corrections.  NIC is leading this effort and ensuring that we are taking innovation to the agencies.  By NIC making innovation a priority, agencies can focus on fulfilling their mission requirements knowing that they can call on us and our Information Center to keep them abreast of current trends and topics.  We want to constantly research ways that agencies can improve their business practices and provide assistance to help them to implement new programs while concurrently learning from their peers.  This year’s theme allows us to put information in the hands of thousands of professionals to shed some light on new ideas or areas that are impacting our profession.

Information Center: How can NIC support innovation in the field of corrections? Can you share examples of this happening in the past or today?

Chief Hadnot: NIC continues to support innovation by developing low and no cost solutions to training, providing research on hot topics that allow customers to have the latest information, and providing technical assistance to bring innovative solutions to areas of concern that an agency may have.  NIC has integrated many train-the-trainer classes into our current training programs.  Instead of NIC providing training for a class of 25 people, we train 25 trainers to take the knowledge and skills back to their agencies and regions to extend our reach.  This capacity building model allows us to make a huge impact in the field. 

In addition, NIC is introducing more interaction in our classrooms, virtual conferences, and broadcasts.  By allowing participants to interact using technology, such as polling, live comments/questions, we will be able to be more responsive to how people learn today and the transfer of knowledge will be more successful.    NIC is constantly responding to requests to help with many initiatives and provide innovative ideas to improve the field.  A few of the recent involvements are with Veterans Treatment Courts, Learning and Performance Symposiums, Evidence Based Decision Making (EBDM), Transition from Jail to Community (TJC), and our upcoming internet broadcast on November 16-17, on “Restrictive Housing: Road Map to Reform.”  NIC is also undergoing strategic planning which will further support the Institute’s focus on innovation and our ability to be responsive to what our customers need.  We have distributed surveys to our customers and are working to incorporate their ideas and needs into our current business practices.  We are excited for our work and look forward to helping our customers implement innovative approaches.