Paul Wormeli, IJIS Institute Executive Director Emeritus, Receives Prestigious Justice Award

Sept. 28, 2011 - PRLog -- Ashburn, VA, September 28, 2011. The IJIS Institute, a nonprofit organization that focuses on mission-critical information sharing for justice, public safety, and homeland security announces that Paul Wormeli, executive director emeritus, was presented the Kelly Bacon award at the 2011 Annual Conference of the National Association for Justice Information Systems (NAJIS).

The NAJIS Board of Directors presented the prestigious award to Wormeli for “Outstanding Service to the Justice Information Technology Community.” This award is only periodically given by NAJIS to individuals that provide particular leadership in the justice community.

In presenting the award, Board members Steve Prisoc and Gordon Lansford noted that Wormeli “has provided this exemplary service to the community for more than 50 years and that his outstanding work has greatly enhanced the quality of justice information services to citizens.” Wormeli gave the keynote opening address at the NAJIS annual conference, on the topic of “The New Normal.”

In March 2011, Wormeli was named by Government Technology magazine as one of the “Top 25 Doers, Dreamers and Drivers” of public safety information technology. In January 2011, the Board of Directors of the IJIS Institute appointed Wormeli as the Executive Director Emeritus of the IJIS Institute, following his eight years as founder and Executive Director of IJIS. Wormeli is employed part time by the IJIS Institute as a senior advisor to management and its board. Wormeli also works on behalf of the IJIS Institute and various federal agencies as a national evangelist for information sharing in justice and public safety.

Wormeli was the first national project director of Project Search, now Search Group Inc., and served as a Presidential appointee in the Ford administration as Deputy Administrator of the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration in the U.S. Department of Justice. He is also a member of the Committee on Law and Justice of the National Academies of Science.

“There is no single individual who has done more to evangelize, educate and facilitate the sharing of justice information than Paul Wormeli and no one more deserving of this recognition,” said Laura Radke, NAJIS President.

The Kelly Bacon award is named after the first president of the NAJIS organization and is given in his honor to worthy recipients. Bacon was a driving force behind NAJIS and NAJIS lost a tremendous advocate when he passed away in 1996. This award was created to recognize individuals who, like Bacon, have made long and sustained contributions to NAJIS and to its mission to foster overall improvement of justice information systems nationwide.

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About the IJIS Institute—The IJIS Institute is a nonprofit organization that serves as the voice of industry, uniting the private and public sectors to improve mission-critical information sharing for those who protect and serve our communities. Find out more at www.ijis.org.

About NAJIS—The National Association for Justice Information Systems (NAJIS) is an organization of individuals who are responsible for the acquisition, operation and management of local, state and federal criminal justice information systems. For more information, visit http://www.najis.org.