PRESENTERS

Presenter Biography’s

She has partnered with the U.S. Department of State Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement (INL), Department of Justice (DOJ), American Bar Association (ABA), United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG) to share communications best practices with criminal justice professionals in the U.S. and abroad. In 2021, she began a long-term project with the Republic of Albania to assist in the creation of a transparency initiative including developing a public information operation for the Special Anti-Corruption Prosecution office. Anne has provided training in Armenia to the Chamber of Advocates on best practices in legal communications. She developed communications strategy plans for the Government of the Maldives including Office of the President, Office of the Attorney General, Judicial Services Commission and the Bar Council of the Maldives.

In 2018, she deployed to North Macedonia for the State Department, where she provided training in strategic communication for the country’s prosecutors and judges. She developed the public information office for the Office of the Special Prosecutor in North Macedonia in 2015, which has become a model for other sectors of the government there and in the Balkans. At the U.S. Embassy’s request, she returned to provide training for all prosecutors and judges. Anne has conducted training seminars for prosecutors and judges from Bosnia, Lebanon and Uzbekistan through the ABA Rule of Law Initiative. She is a communications/media trainer for the Wisconsin Department of Justice, and she is an Adjunct Professor in strategic communications at the National Criminal Justice Training Center at Fox Valley Technical College.

Prior to embarking on a full-time teaching and consulting career, as Communications Director for the Wisconsin DOJ, Anne led the team that developed an award-winning public service campaign, “Dose of Reality,” to create awareness of prescription opiate abuse. She received a national Telly Award for the project in 2016. The program continues today and has been replicated by attorneys general in multiple states. At the Milwaukee Police Department (MPD), she developed the Office of Media & Communications and served as its civilian Commander for nearly a decade. She received a national Webby award in 2013 in the Government category for creating and developing MPD’s website, a project that led the way for other law enforcement agencies to communicate by building their own sites and employing social media. Anne’ work was featured at South By South West (SXSW) in 2016 in the panel, “Municipal Policing: Transparency, Truth and Trust.”

At the request of the Tampa Police Department, Anne worked with the multi-agency Joint Information Center (JIC) for the 2012 Republican National Convention, comprised of more than 100 public information officers. The JIC used social media to improve the perception of law enforcement during the convention, which historically generates negative publicity for agencies. The photographs posted on social media helped set a positive tone of local and national stories.

In 1991, as a reporter for the Milwaukee Journal newspaper, she broke the story of serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer and wrote the book, “The Man Who Could Not Kill Enough: The Story of Milwaukee’s Jeffrey Dahmer.” Anne and the reporting team were nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. An updated edition of the book was released in 2021 as “Monster: The True Story of the Jeffrey Dahmer Murders” with a new, final chapter in both audio and digital editions. Additionally, she contributed to and is featured in an upcoming Netflix production on the case, as well as dozens of documentaries on Jeffrey Dahmer.

She co-authored, "Strategic Approaches to Improve Communications Initiative: A White Paper for Law Enforcement Executives" and “Strategic Communication: A Toolkit for Police Executives” for the U.S. DOJ Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS). She subsequently provided training to police executives nationwide and in Canada on the strategies outlined in the publications. In 2019, she researched and co-authored the “National Association of Attorneys General Mass Casualty Disaster Manual,” to assist Attorneys General in responding to crisis.

Anne volunteers for the Wisconsin Law Enforcement Death Response Team (LEDR), assisting police agencies and surviving families with public statements and internal communication in cases of officer line of duty deaths and suicides. She lives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. When she is not managing a crisis, she rides her Harley-Davidson Fat Boy motorcycle.