Cheri Nolan
Deputy Assistant Attorney General
United States Department of Justice

Cheri Nolan has a long and distinguished career in the criminal justice field. She has served four Attorneys General and three Presidents and was appointed as a Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Justice Programs (OJP) in July 2001. OJP comprises five program bureaus and various program and administrative offices that provide federal leadership in developing the nation’s capacity to prevent and control crime, administer justice, and assist crime victims. Ms. Nolan's responsibilities include oversight of the National Institute of Justice, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, and the Office for Victims of Crime. In addition, she led the development and release of the Serious and Violent Offender Reentry Initiative, a government-wide initiative to help reduce recidivism.

Prior to her appointment at OJP, Ms. Nolan was affiliated with the television show America’s Most Wanted. As executive assistant to John Walsh, the program’s host, she continued the work she had begun in her previous assignment at the Department of Justice, working with state and local law enforcement, elected officials, and crime victims.

Ms. Nolan's extensive work in the justice field was preceded by distinguished service on the White House staff of President Ronald Reagan and in various Cabinet agencies, including the Departments of Commerce, Energy, and the Treasury. She joined the Department of Justice for the first time in 1987 on a temporary assignment for then- Attorney General Edwin Meese. This became a permanent assignment when she was named Deputy Director of the Office of Liaison Services for successive Attorneys General Richard Thornburgh and William P. Barr. In that capacity, she was involved in some of the most important crime issues of the late 1980s and early 1990s.