To contact any member of the research staff, click on their email link below.

Karen L. Amendola, PhD, Chief Operating Officer. Dr. Amendola has over a decade of experience in law enforcement testing, training, research, evaluation, technology, and assessment. Her areas of focus include culture and climate, integrity, accountability, performance and measuring performance, At the Police Foundation, Amendola has served as director of technology and technical assistance and as chief operating officer of the Institute for Integrity, Leadership, and Professionalism.

Dr. Amendola is an affiliate faculty member at George Mason University where she earned both her master of arts and doctor of philosophy degrees in industrial/ organizational psychology. She also holds a master of arts degree in human resources management from Webster University.

Formerly she served as the vice-president of training and career development at Fields Consulting Group, Inc. where she managed public safety selection, testing, and training projects emphasizing ethical and community oriented dimensions of performance. Dr. Amendola also served as president of Professional Development Associates, Inc., a training, career, and organizational development firm serving public safety agencies and other businesses.

Dr. Amendola is the author or co-author of numerous studies and reports including, Assessing Law Enforcement Ethics: A Summary Report of the Study Conducted with the Oregon Department of State Police, Officer Behavior in Police-Citizen Encounters: A Descriptive Model and Implications for Less-than-Lethal Alternatives, and Minimizing the Risks: Personnel Selection Strategies.

David Weisburd, PhD, Senior Fellow. He is professor of criminology at the Hebrew University Law School in Jerusalem and distinguished professor and director of the Center for Evidence Based Crime Policy at George Mason University. Professor Weisburd received his PhD from Yale University. He is the coauthor of several Police Foundation reports, including The Abuse of Police Authority, Compstat and Organizational Change in the Lowell Police Department: Challenges and Opportunities, and The Growth of Compstat in American Policing. Professor Weisburd chairs the foundation’s research advisory committee.

Edwin E. Hamilton, MA, Professional Services Director. Mr. Hamilton received his master's in criminal justice from the George Washington University and completed doctoral studies at the University of Maryland. He has served as the statistical analyst and project director for numerous foundation projects, including Private Ownership of Firearms in the United States: A National Survey, and First-Line Supervision in the Community Policing Context. He is author of Project Exile: A Guidebook to Implementing Successful Gun-Reduction Programs, and co-author of The Metro-Dade Spouse Abuse Replication Project, The Big Six: Policing America's Largest Cities, and The Abuse of Police Authority: A National Study of Police Officers’ Attitudes. Mr. Hamilton has been with the Police Foundation since 1983.

LeRoy O’Shield, Senior Technical Assistance Advisor.  LeRoy O’Shield has over thirty years’ experience in law enforcement and is a leading expert in innovative community-police relations.  He served as chief of the Chicago Housing Authority Police and as a commander of district operations in the Chicago Police Department. He has served as a consultant and trainer on a range of police operational and administrative issues for public and private entities, including the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the U.S. Department of Defense, and the Police Foundation.  He is also an adjunct professor in criminal justice at Governor’s State University.

Eliab Tarkghen, BS, System Engineer. Mr. Tarkghen's software engineering experience includes developing front- and back-end systems, including client/server software and relational database applications. His proficiencies include programming in Visual Basic, C++, Perl, CGI, SQL, JavaScript, HTML, and UNIX shell script; operating systems including MS Windows NT/98, Unix, Sun Solaris, and Linux; as well as a wide range of application and database software. Mr. Tarkghen has a BS in Computer Science from the University of Maryland.

Raymond Johnston, Sr., BA, Senior System Engineer. Mr. Johnston has almost 40 years of experience in software design and development, and computer engineering and programming. After 20 years with Sperry Univac, and 10 years with RCA/GE, Mr. Johnston designed and developed The RAMS™ for the Police Foundation. He has a BA in Mathematics from Lincoln University, and has done graduate work at New York University toward his master's degree in mathematics.

Meghan Slipka, MA, Research and Administrative Coordinator Prior to joining the Police Foundation staff in July 2007, Ms. Slipka conducted research on policing issues at The Catholic University of America and interned in the testing and standards department of the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department. She has a MA in general psychology from The Catholic University of America, and bachelors in psychology from The College of Wooster.