Who will be the next leader of the city’s Office of Community Wellness and Safety?

Mayor Cavalier Johnson is expected to decide soon who will lead the city’s Office of Community Wellness and Safety soon. 

Formerly the Office of Violence Prevention, the Office of Community Wellness and Safety oversees programs that address violence, child abuse and human trafficking, among other issues. 

Advertisement

Approaching the office with this sort of lens and using it to “change the conditions that result in the root causes of violence is imperative,” said Amanda Avalos, deputy executive director of political strategy and programs at Youth Civic Accelerator and a former vice chair of the Milwaukee Fire and Police Commission.

Public forum

Avalos attended a forum July 21 at South Division High School that included the finalists for the position: Paul Callanan, Karin Tyler and Abraham Morris.

Audience questions focused consistently on shootings.  

“It’s an incredibly important department with a great opportunity to support the community through violence intervention,” said Alderwoman Sharlen Moore, who earlier this year called for the Milwaukee Common Council to have a formal role in confirming the new director of the office. 

Priorities for the office

Callanan, former director of Louisville’s Office for Safe and Healthy Neighborhoods, said his first 100 days would include a full assessment of Milwaukee’s current approach.

“What are those programs that are breaking down?” Callanan asked. “What are those programs that are not working? What are those programs that are working and . . . ready to scale up across multiple neighborhoods?”

He contrasted Milwaukee with other cities.

“Why aren’t you seeing the results that other cities are seeing right now?” he asked. “While violence may be trickling down in Milwaukee, it’s not dropping at the rates similar cities across the country are seeing.”

Morris, originally from Wisconsin and now manager of Orlando’s Children, Youth and Families Division, said he would do something similar – use what’s already available and working. 

“I don’t believe in unnecessary change,” Morris said, adding that he feels transforming big systems only happens over time. 

He also emphasized the need for people who are successfully doing work to continue doing so, rather than taking on too much. 

“If we have our outreach team that’s great at outreach, I want you to do really good outreach. I’m paying you to outreach,” Morris said. “I don’t want you to do the mental health services.”

Tyler, the only local candidate and the office’s interim director, identified a strategy currently being used by the office dealing with violence. 

“We created the Critical Response Team. It’s a very high-level team that deals with retaliatory violence and gang violence,” Tyler said. “It’s about urgency. We have got to get to people prior to them making that next move.”

Vaun Mayes, one of the city’s community “violence interrupters,” supports the current approach, saying the city has already seen results. 

“We saw reductions in gun violence in 2023 and 2024, and that most definitely is due to both law enforcement and our efforts in prevention,” he said.

He cited the need to maintain effective collaborations currently happening throughout the city.  

“Disruption would hurt us tremendously,” he added. 

Vision and philosophy

Woven into the candidates’ discussions were their overall philosophies about public safety. 

Callanan described his approach as system-driven. 

“Do you want this office to focus on programs, or do you want it to focus on building a sustainable violence-reduction infrastructure?” he asked. “Those are two different goals.”

He also stressed the importance of long-term planning beyond immediate funding cycles and using best practices from other parts of the country that Milwaukee can learn from.  

Moore, alderwoman of District 10, also said this perspective is important. 

“It takes a very unique person to be able to do this sort of job,” she said. “They have to understand both the local and national context – who’s doing what, what’s working, what’s not working and how to connect the community here.”

Tyler described her philosophy in both personal and professional terms.

She told the audience that her son was killed and her father died in a hit-and-run. 

“They’re buried right next to each other,” Tyler said. 

“I’m not speaking from someone who read this in a report. I’m speaking as a mother, as a daughter and a woman of this city who has lived with the loss that far too many families have experienced.”

But, she said, as a longtime city employee, her approach is also rooted in Milwaukee-specific data, informed by years of local experience in violence prevention, domestic violence and public health. 

Mayes said leaders should leverage the expertise of the people doing the work, particularly front-line workers.

Morris’ vision aligned with Mayes’ desire. He said, in some cases, people who have committed violence in the past need to be a part of the office’s work.

“The ones closest to the problem are also closest to the solution,” Morris said. 

By doing this, the office can better focus its resources toward “the 1% of individuals that are driving most of the violence.” 

The selection process

The mayor appoints the position but sought input from Common Council members and a panel representing “different groups in the city,” said Jeff Fleming, a spokesperson for the mayor’s office. 

An announcement on Johnson’s choice to lead the office is expected soon, Fleming said.