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INTERSTATE COMPACT DIRECTOR
Don spent his early employment experience In Business Management. He was involved as an operations manager on the Mk-46 Torpedo project in specialty coatings. He was a controller for a small manufacturing firm . All of this was while he was attending school in Southern California.
He began his law enforcement career with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department in 1974. He worked as a Deputy Sheriff in their Correctional facilities and was a member of the first I.C.E.R.T team created in the United States. After several years he chose to move back to his home town in Carbon County Utah and joined the Carbon County Sheriff’s Office . During his tenure there he worked patrol; advanced to Sergeant in charge of the patrol division and assisted with Investigations. His partner , Charles Semken, was a masterful interviewer and Don learned his craft well. During those years they successfully investigated numerous high profile cases including the Alphabet Murder. |
Don made a career move in 1987 and joined the Utah Department of Corrections as a Probation & Parole Agent. His duties , again, as a Pre-Sentence Investigator gave him the ability to use the skills he had learned on the Sheriff’s Department. He became an administrator in 1989 and eventually was transferred to the Salt Lake Area to take control of the largest region for probation and parole. He also gained experience at the State Prison working as the Deputy Director of Institutional Operations and was appointed as Compact Administrator for the State of Utah where he finished his career with the State of Utah in 2003 to become the first Executive Director of the Interstate Compact for Adult Offender Supervision in Lexington Kentucky.
He spent the next 4 plus years building and developing an infrastructure for the Compact to make it much more efficient and public safety oriented than it had been previously. He developed national training curriculum for Judges and developed the first Compact Bench book for Judges and deliver it to every District Court and Upper Trail Court judge in the Nation. His training curriculum was approved by the National Bar Association and National Center for State Courts.
Don returned to Utah in 2007 and took a position with ITT Technical Institute in Murray Utah as the Chair of the Criminal Justice School. The following are some of the positions he has held.:
He spent the next 4 plus years building and developing an infrastructure for the Compact to make it much more efficient and public safety oriented than it had been previously. He developed national training curriculum for Judges and developed the first Compact Bench book for Judges and deliver it to every District Court and Upper Trail Court judge in the Nation. His training curriculum was approved by the National Bar Association and National Center for State Courts.
Don returned to Utah in 2007 and took a position with ITT Technical Institute in Murray Utah as the Chair of the Criminal Justice School. The following are some of the positions he has held.:
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- Deputy Sheriff, Los Angeles County
- Sergeant, Deputy Sheriff, Carbon County Sheriff’s Office - Special Investigator Utah Medical Examiner - Probationer and Parole Agent - Probation and Parole Administrator - Assistance Director of Institutional Operations, Utah Department of Corrections - Assistant Director Adult Probation and Parole, Utah Department of Corrections - Compact Administrator for the State of Utah - President Utah Alliance of Police Officers - Executive Director, Interstate Compact for Adult Offender Supervision - Chair , Criminal Justice, ITT Technical Institute |
The following are some of the awards he has received:
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- Graduate Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Academy
- Graduate Los Angeles S.W.A.T/ C.E.R.T Academy - Graduate Utah Peace office Academy - Graduate Utah Correctional Academy - Utah Department of Corrections Executive Director’s Award (4 times) - Paladin Award - Interstate Compact Administrator of the Year Award. - Winter Olympics/ Utah Public Safety Command |