Nancy Ware has spent more than four decades of her career in the management and administration of juvenile and adult criminal justice programs on the local, state, and national levels. Her experience includes not only a national focus but also assisting Judicial, District and Federal law enforcement and justice agencies resolve issues created by the unique relationship between the District of Columbia and federal criminal justice systems.
Her decades of experience in developing and implementing programs, as well as in managing multi-million-dollar budgets and employees resulted in her Presidential appointment as the director of the Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency for the District of Columbia (CSOSA). Before assuming leadership of CSOSA, Ms. Ware served as the first executive director of the Criminal Justice Coordinating Council for DC (CJCC), an independent agency established by Congress, whose members include the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, the Police Chief, other city officials, the Chief Judge of DC Superior Court, the director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons and the chairman of the U.S. Parole Commission.
Ms. Ware’s professional career also includes service with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) as the director of technical assistance and training for DOJ’s well-regarded “Weed and Seed” program, where she was responsible for helping hundreds of sites nationwide to implement strategic plans for public safety. She was also the director of National Programs for the Bureau of Justice Assistance, Office of Justice Programs, Department of Justice, where she oversaw grant funding for the full continuum of the justice system across the United States. Early in her career, Ms. Ware was executive director of the Rainbow Coalition, executive director of the Citizenship Education Fund, and executive director of the District of Columbia Mayor’s Youth Initiatives Office. Since retiring from the federal government in 2017,
Ms. Ware has consulted on numerous projects with the Urban Institute, Zane Networks, Voices for a Second Chance, and Policy Research Associates. Her project experience includes providing project management for the development of a continuum of medical care for individuals released from the DC Jail by connecting their Electronic Health Records inside and outside of the jail; developing an advocacy curriculum for returning citizens; convening and supporting the work of BIPOC leadership of community based organizations in DC on justice reform; reviewing the impact of artificial intelligence and algorithms
on public safety and diverse communities; working with managed care organizations to extend medical care to disenfranchised communities and patients; and providing project management to Zane Networks’ contract with the DC Health Association to implement Narcan distribution in hospitals across the District of Columbia. She is a certified Trauma Informed Care trainer and Sequential Intercept Model trainer to state and local criminal justice entities across the country to meet SAMHSA guidelines.
Ms. Ware holds a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree from Howard University. Her training includes Communication, as well as Educational and Clinical Psychology.
