Kathleen Dennehy, Ph.D.

Over the course of Dr. Kathleen Dennehy’s career in the field of corrections she has worked in a wide range of custody settings and has been a warden in both male and female facilities.  In 2004, she was appointed Commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Correction by Governor Romney and held the position until 2007. She was the first woman to hold this position.  As Commissioner, she worked closely with the Governor’s Commission on Correctional Reform and she testified before the national Commission on safety and abuse in American prisons as well as the National Prison Rape Elimination Commission (NPREC). Dr. Dennehy was a Senior Program Specialist at the National Council on Crime and Delinquency and worked as  part of the Prison Rape Elimination Act ( PREA) Resource Center team. She worked with the Vera Institute of Justice to support the work of  the National Prison Rape Elimination Commission and the development of these standards. She has also done work for the National Institute of Corrections and the Bureau of Justice. She is a past recipient of the Correctional Association of Massachusetts’ annual “Jim Justice Award”, given in recognition of professional performance and sustained excellence in the field of criminal justice.  Dr. Dennehy is a founding member of the Association of Women Executives in Corrections (AWEC) and is a past recipient of AWEC’s Susan Hunter Endowment Award. She has served on  the National Commission on Accreditation for Corrections and on the American Correctional Association’s National Standards Committee and she has authored journal articles and taught graduate courses in criminal justice.  Dr. Dennehy is currently serving as the independent federal court monitor at Tutwiler Prison, Alabama’s state prison for women.