Contact: Robert England
November 20th, 2009

Local law enforcement officers graduate from leadership academy

Fifteen local law enforcement officers made up the third graduating class from the Professional Leadership Academy, a partnership between the Southwest Virginia Criminal Justice Training Academy in Bristol, Virginia and the Mountain Empire Community College Criminal Justice program. 

The Professional Leadership Academy is the brainchild of Robert England, MECC Professor of Criminal Justice, and Doug Cooley, Director of the Bristol Academy.

Training takes place as a six-month, cohort-based program that feeds into the corrections and law enforcement certificate programs at MECC.

The eight correctional supervisors and seven law enforcement supervisors completed 120 hours of training, including a leadership project, before graduating from the Leadership Academy with their certificate.

England states, “Good, quality leaders are graduating from the program.” Cooley agrees, “This is a step in the right direction to improving the professionalism of all of our criminal justice officers.”

For more information about the Professional Leadership Academy, contact England at (276) 523-7431 or rengland@me.vccs.edu.

More Press Releases