Will Stadler joined DCYF in 2023 as the Director of Strategic Initiatives, Culture, and Training for Juvenile Rehabilitation (JR). He began his professional career in juvenile corrections in Kansas. He has worked in applied and academic settings for over twenty years that deliver and evaluate interventions and treatment for justice-involved individuals. Will has previously been a corrections officer, case manager, behavioral health director, researcher, professor, and associate dean. He has also provided consulting, training, and technical assistance to domestic and international justice and health and human service agencies in assessment, risk, need, responsivity, evidence-based corrections, crisis intervention and verbal de-escalation, suicide prevention, and restorative justice. His applied work, research, and teaching have focused on the experience of incarcerated individuals, treatment, and rehabilitation in carceral settings, implementation and use of restorative justice in the criminal justice system, and the intersection between technology, justice, and health.
Will holds a Ph.D. in criminal justice from the University of Cincinnati, a master’s of science in criminal justice and criminology, and a bachelor of arts in political science from the University of Missouri-Kansas City. Dr. Stadler’s work has been featured in several books and peer-reviewed journals, including Justice Quarterly, Victims & Offenders, Criminal Justice & Behavior, Criminal Justice Review, and the Journal of Financial Crime. Away from work, he is an avid mountain climber, trail runner, cyclist, and dog lover.