Leadership, Management, and Supervision

Christopher Mason holds the rank of Colonel/Superintendent on the Massachusetts State Police.  Mason was selected by Governor Charles Baker to lead the Massachusetts State Police in November of 2019.

Mason is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts, where he obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in Environmental Sciences.  After his graduation in 1985, Mason attended the Barnstable County Municipal Police Academy and became a game warden on Cape Cod.  In 1993 he joined the Massachusetts State Police and attended the Massachusetts State Police Academy.  Upon graduation from that academy he was assigned to patrol as a uniformed Trooper.  Mason then obtained a Master’s degree in Criminal Justice from Anna Maria College. 

Mason worked in assignments as a uniformed Trooper for approximately five years before he transferred to the State Police Detective Unit (SPDU) for the Cape and Islands District.  Working as a homicide detective, Mason received promotions to Sergeant, Lieutenant, and then to the rank of Captain.  Mason was fortunate to assume the role of Unit Commander for the Cape and Islands SPDU; where he supervised the daily operations of both the homicide unit and the Cape Cod Drug Task Force.  In 2015 Mason was promoted to the rank of Major and served as a Deputy Division Commander in the Division of Homeland Security and Preparedness. In that capacity Mason oversaw the operation of the state’s Commonwealth Fusion Center (CFC).  Mason served as the Director of the CFC until November 2017.  In addition to the CFC, Mason supervised the State Police Cyber Crimes Unit, High Risk Victim Unit, State Identification Section, and the MSP Fraud Unit.

In November of 2017 Mason was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel and oversaw operations of the Massachusetts State Police Division of Investigative Services.  In January of 2019 he was designated as the Deputy Superintendent before being appointed to the rank of Colonel. 

Mason is also a 2013 graduate of the 253rd Session of the F.B.I. National Academy and a member of the F.B.I National Executive Institute Cohort #44 in Quantico, VA.  Mason has also attended the Drug Enforcement Agency, Drug Unit Commanders Academy and the Naval Postgraduate School, Fusion Center Leaders Program. 

Captain Rob Fanelli is currently an operations commander at the Gainesville Police Department. Prior to his promotion to captain he was the Criminal Investigations Division Commander. He has 20 years of law enforcement experience with a diverse career. He has experience in policy writing and compliance, investigations, street crime units, and administration. His goal is to improve the profession of Law Enforcement by challenging thoughts and misconceptions, sharing ideas, encouraging communication across agencies and disciplines, and passing knowledge on to a new generation of law enforcement officers.     

Captain Fanelli has a Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Florida in Criminology. He went on to receive a Master’s in Business Administration from Saint Leo University and completed his dissertation on Effective Police Organizational Structure: Managerial Economics of a Police Department. As a result of his participation in several IACP projects on enhancing response to gender-based violence and law enforcement victim advocacy he now provides technical assistance and is a consultant for the IACP. In addition to his work with the IACP he also instructs on various topics such as Report Writing and Investigations and Field Training for Advanced Police Concepts and is a subject matter expert for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement on Middle Management. He is an adjunct professor for Santa Fe Community College Institute of Public Safety and is the President and Founder of the Southeastern Field Training Officer Association. He is currently enrolled as a fellow in the Bloomberg School of Public at Johns Hopkins pursuing a Master’s In Public Health with a focus on violence in communities.       

Gina V. Hawkins served as the Chief of Police for the City of Fayetteville North Carolina Police Department from August 2017 until January 2023. She has over 34 years of exceptional law enforcement experience, starting her career in 1988 with the City of Atlanta police department. She worked in many divisions before retiring as an Assistant Zone Commander in 2006. She went on to assist the newly formed police department in the City of Sandy Springs, Georgia as a Commander. Chief Hawkins was instrumental in establishing an efficient, forward thinking police department and commanded many units. In 2013, Chief Hawkins joined the Clayton County Police Department as a Deputy Chief of Police where she presided at different times over both the Operational Command and the Support Service Command of the department which provided her the experience of commanding every aspect of the Department.

She is a graduate of the F.B.I National Associates Academy – Session 252 and was chosen to be a delegate in the prestigious 23rd Georgia International Law Enforcement Exchange (GILEE), where she traveled to Israel with other law enforcement executives to study and evaluate the Israeli Police Force. Chief Hawkins is a 2010 graduate of the Senior Management Institute for Police (SMIP) presented by the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF). Chief Hawkins is an alumna of the Harvard Kennedy School Executive Education and has an Executive Certificate in Public Leadership by completing the Senior Executives in National and International Security, Leadership in Crisis and Leadership Decision Making programs. In 2014, she was named as Georgia’s 100 Most Powerful and Influential Award by Women Looking AheadNews. Chief Hawkins received the “We Are Clayton” Magazine 2016 Living Legend Award. In 2019, Chief Hawkins was awarded the North Carolina Dogwood Award by Attorney General Joshua H. Stein for pursuing community solutions to North Carolina’s most pressing safety issues. Chief Hawkins was named the 2019 Chief of the Year by North Carolina Special Olympics Law Enforcement Torch Run for leadership and commitment to raising funds for Special Olympics. In 2020 the National Association of Women Law Enforcement Executives awarded her the Women Law Enforcement Executive (WoLEEY) of the Year Award. In January 2020, she was sworn in by the Attorney General to serve as a Commissioner on the Presidential Commission of Law Enforcement and the Administration of Justice. She served on the Executive Board of the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives from 2017-2021. She serves as the 1st Vice President of the National Association of Women Law Enforcement Executives. She is a member of the International Association of Chiefs of Police, the North Carolina’s Association of Chiefs of Police, the North Carolina Police Executive Association (NCPEA), the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives (NOBLE) and the Hispanic American Police Command Officers Association (HAPCOA)

Tarrick McGuire began a career in public service with the Arlington (TX) Police Department in 2003. He has served in multiple positions before being appointed to Assistant Police Chief in 2022. As a nationally recognized public speaker and published author, Chief McGuire has been a leading authority on community police relations, police pattern and practice, evidence-based policing, police reform, and public policy. In 2020, he was appointed to the Council on Police Reform and Race by the National Police Institue and in 2022 he was inducted into the Evidence-Based Policing Hall of Fame.
During his career, Chief McGuire has been at the forefront of developing innovative strategies, leading local and national change in community police relations. Chief McGuire served as a law enforcement fellow with the IACP contributing research and technical assistance to U.S. police departments on 21st Century Policing in Washington, DC. Chief McGuire has earned a B.S. in Speech Communications from Oklahoma State University, a M.A. in Christian Leadership from Criswell College, and a Doctor of Public Administration from California Baptist University.