Colleen K. Copple Founding Partner Expertise: Grant writing, Coalition building, Training and facilitation, Strategic planning Full Biography: Colleen K. Copple is a Founding Partner of Strategic Applications International, LLC. Ms. Copple is a Senior Research Fellow with the Sagamore Institute for Public Policy and serves as a consultant with the U.S. Department of Justice, Community Capacity Development Office. Her work at CCDO focuses on creating national strategic partnerships for the Weed and Seed Program that increase resources and support for community based coalitions addressing crime, prevention, intervention, treatment, and neighborhood revitalization. Ms. Copple served as a former Weed and Seed site coordinator in Salt Lake City, UT in the mid 90’s and brings her collaborative approach to her work at CCDO.

Prior to launching SAI in December of 2003, Ms. Copple served as Senior Advisor to the President for New Initiatives at the National Crime Prevention Council. Ms. Copple came to NCPC in 1999 as the Associate Deputy Director and oversaw a number of responsibilities during her five year tenure at NCPC including Youth Programs, Training, and the Crime Prevention Coalition of America. New initiatives Ms. Copple was responsible for designing, funding, and implementing include: a national Weed and Seed training and technical assistance program; a national response to methamphetamine funded by the COPS Office and SAMHSA that included statewide Meth Summits, and a national clearinghouse on methamphetamine; and the Center for Faith and Service, which included major grants from the Pew Charitable Trusts to launch their faith-based technical assistance project FATEN, and the training/ta grant for faith-based initiatives with the Corporation for National and Community Service. Other examples of her contributions include: designing and funding two national school safety initiatives, “National Youth Safety Corps” and “National Safety and Security Council;” increasing membership in the Crime Prevention Coalition of America from 120 to 4,000+; training more that 200 community teams in the 3 day executive seminar “Cutting Edge” in collaboration with the DEA; and developing a 32 hour training curriculum for law enforcement on underage drinking.

Ms. Copple joined NCPC after shepherding a series of successful community initiatives in Salt Lake City, Utah. These include the Glendale Community Mobilization Project, a gang prevention project recognized by OJJDP as a national model, the Comprehensive Communities Program recognized by Attorney General Janet Reno for its innovative design in reinventing government, the Weed and Seed program which generated over $10 million in resources committed to her neighborhood to address youth violence, and the COPS Methamphetamine Initiative which created the first comprehensive response to methamphetamine and generated over $1 million to support prevention, treatment, and enforcement efforts. A former school board member, state PTA leader, and mother of six, Ms. Copple has over 20 years of experience working at the local, state, and national levels. She has organized neighborhoods, redesigned city infrastructure, changed the ways state and federal agencies do business, and designed and implemented national initiatives, all in the process of naming and claiming our children and our communities. Her organizing motto is: Now is the time. This is the place. We are the ones.