Join us at the 2025 JJAM Mid-Winter Conference!
🗓️ Dates: March 26-27, 2026
📍 Location: DoubleTree By Hilton – Bay City Riverfront, Bay City, MI
Our Featured presenter this year is Jeff Wallace, MCJ
Jeff Wallace, MCJ, brings a rare combination of lived experience and professional expertise to juvenile-justice audiences. After entering the system as a youth and later spending six years incarcerated (four of those in solitary confinement), Jeff earned a Master of Criminal Justice and built a career focused on improving outcomes for young people.
He has served as a social worker and crisis interventionist, taught as an assistant professor of criminal justice, and worked as a youth-facility inspector just to name a few of the roles that have given him a practical, systems-level perspective.
Jeff’s TEDx talks and public presentations are well received by juvenile-justice professionals. He continues to serve in leadership roles that support reform and improved outcomes for youth affected by the system. He is the founder of Jeff Wallace Speaks LLC and is regularly invited to speak to multidisciplinary audiences across juvenile justice, child welfare, corrections, and community services.
🔹 Day 1 – March 26, 2026
9:00 AM – 4:00 PM: Jeff Wallace – “Thriving After Resiliency” moves beyond familiar trauma-informed language to focus on how anyone can sustain positive change. Jeff blends personal insight with proven approaches and provides straightforward strategies and tools attendees can apply immediately, professionally and personally.
🔹 Day 2 – March 27, 2026
9:00 AM – 12:00 PM: Dr. Thomas Holt – Professor in the school of criminal justice, Michigan State University. “What Juvenile Justice Professionals need to know about Cybercrime and Online Juvenile Delinquency matters.”
Day 2 Presenter Bios
Julie M. Krupa is an Associate Professor and Director of Undergraduate Studies in the School of Criminal Justice at Michigan State University and a core member of the Youth Equity Project. Broadly, her research focuses on health and social disparities among justice-involved youth and young adults. She applies a community-engaged, action research approach to examine local issues of violence and disparities in the juvenile justice system. She is particularly interested in the intersection between public health and juvenile justice, unmet health needs among marginalized youth and young adults, and program evaluation. Dr. Krupa and her colleagues are currently working with justice and community-based agencies in and outside of Michigan, to better understand and inform system responses to violence, delinquency, and youth needs. Dr. Krupa’s research has been funded by the Bureau of Justice Assistance, National Institutes on Drug Abuse, City of Detroit, and Michigan Public Health Institute.
Thomas J. Holt is a Professor in the School of Criminal Justice at Michigan State University, and the Director of the Center for Cybercrime Investigation and Training which provides training on technology and crime issues for criminal justice agencies across the state of Michigan. His research focuses on all forms of cybercrime and the policy response to these issues, and has been published in academic and professional journals across various disciplines. Dr. Holt is also the co-host of the Crossing the Firewall podcast, which covers various cybercrime and cybersecurity issues in an approachable way to improve public awareness on these problems.
Karen Holt, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor and criminologist in the School of Criminal Justice at Michigan State University. She received her bachelor’s degree and master’s degree in forensic psychology and holds a master’s and doctoral degree in criminal justice. Dr. Holt’s research focuses on sexual deviance, sexual offending, and sexually motivated violence. She has presented her research at both national and international criminology conferences. Her professional membership affiliations include both Michigan and the national chapters of the Association for the Treatment and Prevention of Sexual Abuse (ATSA), the American Society of Criminology, The Homicide Research Working Group, The International Homicide Investigators Association, The Center for Gender in a Global Context, The Research Consortium on Gender-Based Violence, The Society for Police and Criminal Psychology, and The Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality. She has developed and co-presented trainings on typologies and theories of sexual offending, and pornography use and sexual offending, cold case investigation, and homicide and death investigation. She recently received funding from the Michigan State Police to develop offender-focused knowledge and investigation practices for the Michigan Sexual Assault Kit Initiative.
Michael C. Van Huysse, Esq.
Michael “Mike” Van Huysse grew up in Rochester Hills, MI, and attended Oakland University for his undergraduate studies. Mike then attended Michigan State University College of Law and was licensed in 2009. Early in his legal career, Mike worked at a firm near East Lansing, where he litigated cases throughout the state and practiced a number of areas of law, including criminal defense, family law, bankruptcy, and civil litigation in both state and federal courts.
Mike started his own practice in 2015. Today, Mike’s work focuses on areas of practice within the family courts, consisting of child protection, juvenile delinquency, waiver and designation proceedings, as well as child custody-related matters. Mike also serves as the lawyer-guardian ad litem for children involved in child protection proceedings before the Honorable Shauna Dunnings in the Ingham County Circuit Court.
Judge Amanda G. Pollard
Judge Amanda G. Pollard was appointed to serve as the Probate Court judge by Governor Gretchen Whitmer, beginning March 4, 2024.
Judge Pollard hears all cases over which the Probate Court has original jurisdiction, including guardianships, conservatorships, trusts and estates, and mental commitments. Judge Pollard also hears child protective proceedings and juvenile delinquency matters with
a rotation of other Circuit Court matters, including cases involving personal protection orders divorce, custody, support, extreme risk protection orders, and name changes.
Judge Pollard presides over the Juvenile Drug Treatment Court, designed to work with court-involved youth struggling with substance use disorder. She also presides over the Adult Truancy Court, a program designed to delay sentences for parents while they rectify truancy for their children.
Prior to taking the bench, Judge Pollard graduated with honors from Ball State University with a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature in 2008. She graduated from Michigan State University, College of Law in 2011. While attending law school, Judge Pollard clerked for the Ingham County Probate Court, served as a teaching assistant for the research and writing program at MSU Law, and clerked for Gaydos & Leckie, PLLC. Following graduation, she was admitted to the bar and worked in the areas of family law and probate as an Associate Attorney for Gaydos & Leckie.
Judge Pollard hired into the Eaton County Prosecutor’s Office in 2014 focusing on child protective proceedings, juvenile delinquency cases, and adult felony cases with child victims. She was an active member of the Child Crimes Multidisciplinary Team and Child Death Review, and participated frequently in trainings involving trauma-informed prosecution, intensive trial practice, and restorative justice.
Judge Pollard took over as the Attorney Referee and Juvenile Division Director for the Eaton County Family Division in 2017. She presided over juvenile delinquency and child protective proceedings on behalf of the Probate Court during her tenure. She was an active participant in local and state initiatives surrounding juvenile justice reform and equitable legal representation. Judge Pollard also wrote, obtained, and reported on multimillion-dollar grants supporting local initiatives.
Judge Pollard is a current member of the Michigan Probate Judges Association, Community Corrections Advisory Board, Women Lawyers Association of Michigan, and Rotary. She serves as Secretary to the Children’s Law Section of the State Bar of Michigan, Liaison to the Criminal Law Section of the State Bar of Michigan, and Advisory Board Member for the Youth Defense Project. She previously served as the Co-Chair Legislative and Court Rules Committee for MAFCA’s Executive Board. She also served on SCAO’s Advisory Board for the Juvenile Justice Task Force, along with subcommittees in data management and legal representation.
Judge Pollard is a frequent speaker and trainer. She testified at the Michigan House of Representatives, Criminal Justice Committee related to the Justice for Kids and Communities bill package. She serves on panels and presents for SADO, Children’s Law Section of the State Bar, and Court Appointed Special Advocates. She frequently volunteers her time to judge moot court competitions for her alma mater, Michigan State University.
Chris Anderson, Chief Assistant Prosecuting Attorney, Eaton County
Chris Anderson is the Chief Assistant Prosecuting Attorney for Eaton County, with over 15 years prosecuting experience. Chris is a member of the State Bar of Michigan Committee on Professionalism and Civility and Criminal Jurisprudence and Practice Committee. He serves on the Prosecuting Attorney’s
Association of Michigan’s Cold Case Forum team and Education and Training Committee.
Chris previously served on the Michigan Juvenile Justice Reform Taskforce: Out of Home Placement workgroup, the SCAO MiFile Criminal Business workgroup, the SCAO Remote Trial taskforce, the Trine University School of Criminal Justice Professional Advisory Board, and is an ICLE contributor. The 2015 David M. Schieber MADD Lifesaver Award winner, Chris is a Drug Recognition Expert trained prosecutor. Having prosecuted matters from traffic tickets to homicides, he currently carries a caseload consisting of homicides and sexual assaults. In his spare time, Chris also serves as the chair of the Eaton County Child Death Review Team, serves as the office’s FOIA coordinator, and provides training to local law enforcement. Beyond his time in Eaton County, Chris was an assistant prosecutor in Branch County and previously worked for the Branch County Sheriff’s Office.
🥇 Awards, networking opportunities, and lunch are included.
🎟️ Don’t miss out on this chance to learn from the best!
