KATE HUFFMAN served for twenty-one years as a General Division Judge on the Montgomery County Common Pleas Court and since 2023 has served on the Ohio Second District Court of Appeals. During her trial court tenure she presided at various times over the Drug Court and the Women’s R.IS.E. court. Judge Huffman teaches as an adjunct faculty member at the University of Dayton School of Law and on the faculty of the National Judicial College. She currently serves as the American Bar Association Judicial Fellow, providing peer-to-peer training on a variety of topics associated with impaired driving. Judge Huffman is also the author of numerous publications, primarily related to impaired driving as well as treatment court issues.

Julie Seitz, LGSW, MSW, LADC, is a project director with Impaired Driving Solutions (IDS), a division of All Rise, providing national training and technical assistance to treatment courts and justice-system partners. With more than 25 years of experience, her work spans clinical practice, community-based program development, and systems transformation. Julie is an adjunct MSW faculty member at The College of St. Scholastica and an editor and contributor with the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM), supporting national guidance related to the ASAM Criteria and evidence-based clinical standards. She is a frequent national and international presenter and is known for helping systems move beyond one-size-fits-all approaches toward individualized, measurable, and effective practice.

Kacie Nickel has been a Public Defender at the Maricopa County Public Defender’s Office for 8 years, she has been in the Specialty Court Division representing client in the Drug, DUI, and Veterans Court for the approximately 4 years.

Karen Cowgill is a project director for the National Drug Court Institute (NDCI), a division of the National Association of Drug Court Professionals (NADCP). She retired from Maricopa County Adult Probation, where she served as an adult probation officer and supervisor for 20 years, 19 of which were with the DUI/drug courts. She also implemented a veterans court track in the drug court program. Beginning as a standard probation officer for DUI court, she moved on to become a supervisor for DUI court probation officers and then to supervise drug court officers. She serves as a grant reviewer for BJA and SAMSHA and has presented at numerous state and national conferences, including the American Probation and Parole Association and NADCP, and at the National Judicial College. Ms. Cowgill has served as the project director for multiple grants, including both BJA and SAMSHA awards. She managed a BJA grant to establish a Spanish-speaking court for the DUI court program. Ms. Cowgill graduated from Southwest Texas State University with a bachelor’s degree in social work and completed her master’s degree in education/leadership at Northern Arizona University. Prior to working in law enforcement, Ms. Cowgill served as a crisis counselor in the community and as a case manager for the seriously mentally ill.

Kate Vesely is the Director of Pima County’s Department of Justice Services (DJS). She has a dual Masters of Public Administration and Masters of Legal Studies from the University of Arizona. Kate has working in each intercept of the justice system – and was the first to coin the term “Intercept 0” in 2016, and aided Policy Research Associates to incorporate it into the full Sequential Intercept Model (SIM). In 2018, she was the primary author of the Consolidate Misdemeanor Problem Solving (CMPS, pronounced “compass”) court program, the first consolidated, regional co-occurring treatment court program in the country. Kate has been the lead facilitator for the Southern Arizona Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) since 2008, and sits on several expert panels for both SAMHSA and BJA.

Katie Marwitz is a Licensed Professional Counselor in the state of Arizona, as well as a AZBBHE Board certified Clinical Supervisor. Katie’s professional background includes extensive experience in the areas of substance use disorder, justice services treatment, and general mental health treatment. Katie currently works at Terros Health as the Senior Director of Clinical Operations, overseeing justice services and the AHCCCS Targeted Investment Program for Terros. With a passion for social and health equity, and quality patient care, Katie frequently leads internal, and community stakeholder trainings in the areas of improving service delivery and driving social change.

Kendall Friend, MA, MPA is a Senior Court Management Consultant in the Research Division. Since joining the NCSC in 2024 her project work has focused on Adult Treatment Court state-based technical assistance and outcome evaluation. She earned a Masters in Criminal Justice from Slippery Rock University of PA, Grant Writing Certification from Temple University, a Bachelors in Criminal Justice and Psychology from Lycoming College and she is currently obtaining a Master’s in Public Administration from Murray State University. Prior to NCSC, Kendall was a Project Director at All Rise for five years where she managed the state conference planning project and served as a subject matter expert in Adult Treatment Court standards and community supervision. She began her career in treatment courts in 2014 as an adult probation officer at Fayette County Court of Common Pleas in Uniontown, Pennsylvania, where she had the opportunity to supervise veterans court and mental health court intermediate punishment participants. She transitioned to a position as the court coordinator of Fayette County’s mental health court and veteran’s court. In that role, she worked with community partners to implement Fayette County’s adult drug court. In 2018, she became the court coordinator for Pierce County District Court’s adult drug court and veterans’ treatment court programs in Tacoma, Washington, where she helped the treatment court teams implement a veterans treatment court.

Kerri Wagner has served as President & CEO of PharmChem, Inc. since 2021. From 2015-2021, she worked in the capacity as President of the PharmChek® Sweat Patch Division at PharmChem, Inc., where she was responsible for the strategic and day-to-day functions of the Company, including sales, customer service, marketing, and training, as well as management of the Company’s growth and expansion efforts. Kerri, a former Police Officer and Social Worker, began an 11-year career as a Parole Agent for the South Dakota DOC, Division of Parole Services in 2005 In this role, she provided supervision and monitoring of adult clients on parole supervision. In 2006, she was appointed oversight of the Division’s 24/7 Sobriety Program, of which the PharmChek® Sweat Patch was an integral testing method. In 2013, she was promoted to Senior Parole Agent–EBP Specialist for the Division, where she worked to advance strategic evidence-based programs to improve client outcomes and ensure public safety. Kerri holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Math from South Dakota State University and pursued her post-graduate master’s coursework in Criminal Justice and Public Policy at the University of Cincinnati, 2013- 2015.