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- 02Feb2021
SEARCH Promotes Yogesh Chawla to Manager of its Software and Data Engineering Program
Mr. Yogesh Chawla, a SEARCH employee since 2011, was promoted to Manager of SEARCH’s Software and Data Engineering (SDEP), effective Feb. 1, 2021.In his new role, Mr. Chawla is responsible for managing a portfolio of SEARCH information technology services, including software architecture and systems design, application development, deployment and support, and data and project management. The services provided by SEARCH’s SDEP team support justice, public safety, and homeland security information sharing nationwide.
“Yogesh has been an integral member of the SEARCH team for nearly 10 years, and provides extraordinary service in support of SEARCH clients and partners throughout the nation,” said SEARCH Executive Director David J. Roberts. “We are excited about Yogesh assuming new duties and expanding his leadership within SEARCH.”
The SDEP team develops tools and resources to help federal, state, local, and tribal organizations manage and share information. These solutions offer capabilities such as federated query, authentication/access control, subscription/notification, process/workflow automation, and data analysis, among others. The SDEP team also supports the Open Justice Broker Consortium (OJBC), a development arm of SEARCH, which is dedicated to improving justice information sharing through the reuse of low-cost, standards-based integration solutions.
Mr. Chawla has more than 20 years of experience as an IT professional specializing in service-oriented architecture (SOA) solutions for the justice domain. Prior to his promotion, he served as an Information Sharing Architecture Specialist for SEARCH. Previous roles include Technical Lead on the Wisconsin Justice Information Sharing (WIJIS) program, as a project consultant for the insurance and banking industries, as technical analyst for Merrill Lynch in New York City and Bueños Aires, and as an infrastructure programmer for Lockheed Martin.
Mr. Chawla earned a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Binghamton University in New York. He is a regular speaker at regional and national justice information sharing conferences, and has prepared reference implementations in use by a number of municipalities. He is also an elected member of the Dane County (WI) Board of Supervisors.
Ms. Karen Lissy is a Justice Information Services Specialist for the Law and Policy Program of SEARCH, The National Consortium for Justice Information and Statistics. In this position, she provides assistance to state and local justice and public safety agencies to collect, curate, and use National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) data and computerized criminal history record (CCH/CHRI) information for policy analysis and development.
She also guides justice and related organizations in how to craft and implement laws, policies, practices, and technology applications to effectively collect and use CCH and related justice/public safety data; address legal, policy, and regulatory issues associated with CCH data; better manage and operate criminal justice information and identification systems; and develop security and privacy policies that protect justice information sharing systems.
Ms. Lissy has nearly two decades of research and data analysis experience, having led projects and tasks in support of two agencies within the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Justice Programs (the Bureau of Justice Statistics and National Institute of Justice), as well as the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, and multiple foundations, including Ford, Annie E. Casey, and Hewlett. Prior to joining SEARCH in October 2020, Ms. Lissy served as a Social Science Researcher at RTI International, as a regional Crime Analyst for the Redmond (WA) Police Department, and as Director of a research program with the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis. Beginning in 2012, Ms. Lissy’s work has focused on improving data in law enforcement to answer policy questions and improve community/police relations.
Ms. Lissy earned a Bachelor’s degree in Public Policy from Duke University, and a Master’s in Public Health from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
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