Criminal Justice Mental Health Summit 2025

Dr. Shawn Moore is a former Police Officer for Brooklyn Center Police Department. He has 20 years of professional experience in the field of Cultural Competency, Conflict Resolution, and Community Engagement. This has included, working as a community liaison in the Moundsview School District, a community and cultural coordinator for North St. Paul School District, Coordinating the Scholars Program at Century College, and Director of community engagement and service learning at Bethel University, and Metro State University. He has taught in this field as an adjunct professor, senior Mall of America training officer, and community-training liaison. Shawn is currently a Volunteer State Mediator for Hennepin County. Throughout all of his work experience he has been tasked with the responsibility to teach and conduct cross-cultural, conflict resolution, and community engagement workshops and trainings. He also gained experience from his time living abroad which included living in Guam for 4 years. Also, Shawn spent significant time in Japan, Korea, China, the Philippines, Australia, and South Africa.

Joshua Bitsko is a retired captain from the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. He has been a law enforcement professional for 24 years, and has held a variety of positions to include K9 handler, K9 training sergeant, detective sergeant, internal affairs Lieutenant, policy and procedure lieutenant, commander of the Las Vegas resort corridor, and commander over the health, wellness, and safety bureau. He has a BA in Public Administration and is an experienced instructor with over 15 years of teaching both law enforcement employees and community members. Josh responded to the largest mass shooting incident in US history, the 1 October Massacre, as a tactical element. Josh was one of three people to breach the suspect’s door and led a team of officers to make entry and clear the suspect’s room. Josh was also the incident commander over a mass stabbing incident on the Las Vegas Strip, as well as the recent mass shooting at the University of Nevada Las Vegas. This gives him unique insight on both the stressors of being on the front lines during an active shooter, and the pressures of leading a police response when lives are at stake. He has spoken around the country about the 1 October massacre, to include to the Secret Service at the White House. Josh can provide personal insight into the struggles of post-traumatic stress, and strategies to assist in processing trauma. Through his first-hand experiences, Josh can not only provide guidance and training for law enforcement professionals facing the most extreme critical incidents, but also describe the mindset necessary for proper critical incident preparedness, response, and processing the aftermath. Josh has worked with both public agencies and the private sector in creating successful wellness and resilience programs.

Melissa is a licensed social worker with specialized expertise in anti-human trafficking efforts, multi-disciplinary team development, and addressing secondary traumatic stress and officer wellness. She brings a wealth of knowledge as a certified trainer in Green Dot, Compassion Fatigue, GEMS, Stand to Protect, My Life My Choice, and SHARP. Additionally, Melissa is trained in Child Welfare and Safe Zone. Over the past decade, she has provided national and international training and technical assistance to professionals working with victims and survivors of human trafficking. Melissa currently serves as the Director of Advocacy for the National Child Protection Task Force (NCPTF) and is a member of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children's (NCMEC) Family Advocacy Network. She also maintains or has held contracts with organizations such as the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP), OUR Rescue, the National Criminal Justice Training Center (NCJTC), and the Office for Victims of Crime (OVC). Her diverse background includes case management and crisis response for human trafficking victims and survivors, treatment foster care, youth homelessness, victim/witness programming, prevention education, and work in psychiatric and addiction services. Notably, Melissa served as the first Human Trafficking Navigator and Victim/Witness Specialist in North Dakota, spearheading a decade of program development in the state. In 2020, she was nominated for the YWCA's Women of the Year award. In addition, she is a board member of the Fargo Police Foundation. Since its inception in 2016, Melissa was an active member of the North Dakota Human Trafficking Task Force and assisted in the development of programming, multi-disciplinary teams, and response to victims to include Tribal Nations. She was the chair of the Lived Experience Subcommittee and vice-chair of the Labor Trafficking Subcommittee. With over 15 years of experience in social work, Melissa has witnessed firsthand the toll that high-stress, high-pressure environments take on professionals. This led her to develop trainings and resources to help organizations better understand vicarious trauma and support wellness in their teams. Throughout her career, Melissa has trained over 13,000 students and professionals, presenting at notable conferences such as IAHTI, GRIT Wyoming, Shared Hope, IACP, NCPTF, Dallas Crimes Against Children, National Cyber Crimes, and IHTSJ. Her expertise spans topics such as human trafficking, team building and development, Tribal Nations, trauma-informed interviews and approaches, secondary traumatic stress, and the creation of wellness programs for first responders. Currently based in St. Petersburg, FL, Melissa continues to offer training and consulting services internationally.