Leaders in Justice & Safety Finance
Sarah Schirmer
Sarah Schirmer is the executive director of the Center and a managing director at PFM. Sarah is an expert on criminal justice policy, operations, and coordination. She leads the Center’s work on policy assessment, organizational assessment, and fines and fees. Before joining PFM, Sarah served as the criminal justice policy advisor to the former mayor of New Orleans and coordinated implementation of the mayor’s criminal justice priorities.
Seth Williams
Seth Williams is the deputy director of the Center and a director at PFM. Seth leads the firm’s law enforcement practice, focusing on workload-based staffing assessments, organizational, operational, and best practice analyses, and financial improvement reviews. His work at PFM has helped elected and appointed leaders pursue data-driven staffing levels, improve recruitment and retention efforts, reduce expenditures, increase efficiencies and outcomes, and redesign portions of criminal justice and public safety systems.
Greg Butler
Greg Butler is a director at PFM and works with the Center on issues related to public safety compensation and recruitment and retention. Since joining PFM, he has led hundreds of public safety collective bargaining engagements and delivered expert witness testimony in interest arbitration hearings across multiple states. Greg also leads recruitment and retention studies for police, corrections, and fire/rescue personnel.
Chloe Bohm
Chloe Bohm is a senior managing consultant at PFM and works in PFM’s Center for Justice & Safety Finance and Workforce Consulting Group. Chloe specializes in criminal justice policy, operations, and budgeting. Prior to joining PFM in 2020, Chloe served as Executive Policy Specialist in the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections and as a budget analyst for the Pennsylvania House Appropriations Committee.
Victoria Asare
Victoria Asare is a senior analyst at PFM and works in the Center with a focus on public safety and budgeting. Victoria supports local governments on budget, organizational, and operational assessments for police and fire departments.
Dr. Ronal Serpas
Dr. Ronal Serpas is a senior advisor to the Center. He formerly served as the chief of the Washington State Patrol, chief of police in Nashville, Tennessee and police superintendent of New Orleans, Louisiana. Nationally and internationally recognized for his expertise, Ron is the Professor of Practice for Criminology and Justice at Loyola University New Orleans, former vice president – and now honorary president – of the International Association of Chiefs of Police, Chair of the Board of Directors of the National Policing Institute, and the Chair of Law Enforcement Leaders to Reduce Crime and Incarceration.
Caroline Sylvan
Caroline Sylvan is a director at PFM and works with the Center on issues related to mental and behavioral health, substance use disorder, homelessness, and related social services. Caroline’s Health and Human Services consulting practice leads projects related to the operations, organization, and financial health of human services agencies, with a particular focus on child welfare.
Kevin Watters
Kevin Watters is a senior managing consultant at PFM and works in the Center with a focus on public safety. Kevin supports local governments with data-driven analyses of budget, operations, and resource allocations for police, fire, and emergency services.
Samantha Brandt
Samantha Brandt is a senior analyst at PFM. Samantha provides strategic, quantitative, and analytical support for multiple practice areas, including PFM’s Center for Justice & Safety Finance and Center for Budget Equity and Innovation. Her work ranges from incorporating equitable practices into government budgeting to analyzing workload efficiency and effectiveness within police departments across the country.
Brett Stephenson
Brett Stephenson is a senior analyst at PFM and works in the Center on issues related to public safety and law enforcement operations. As a lead analyst on multiple PFM engagements, Brett has conducted comprehensive benchmarking and best practices research, as well as various forms of quantitative and qualitative analysis in support of major law enforcement agencies across the country.