The eBodyGuard Team: Experts in Personal Safety

Melissa Faith Hart

Founder & CEO

Melissa Faith Hart is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of eBodyGuard®. She created the eBodyGuard personal safety, evidence, and wellness technology with its eBodyGuard Safety Card™ and eBodyCam™, which are available in the App Store and Google Play. These are key components of the vendor-agnostic eBodyGuard Smart Discovery Platform, which integrates discovery both within and outside of criminal justice IT systems. Her 20 years of experience working with law enforcement and District Attorneys led to the first criminal eDiscovery system in the nation.

Melissa spent 17 years in corporate America, mostly with Xerox. She later served on the Pink Tax on Mobility initiative, sponsored by New York University, investigating the reasons why women pay more for transportation than men. She is working with NREL (National Renewable Energy Laboratory) to improve the efficiency and passenger safety of transit systems.

Using her certifications in Six Sigma Business processes as a core principle of solving business problems, Melissa focused deeply to understand the criminal justice system. She brought in experts from Xerox PARC (Palo Alto Research Center) to help improve this very burdened and siloed process. She later became the executive director of the program supporting the process of automating criminal discovery, integrating 363 law enforcement agencies to expedite the passing of evidence within 72 hours.

Melissa believes personal safety is a primal right, and has invested decades in learning the cultures and the technologies of these systems. She remains determined to help transform systems to better support our communities.

John Cooke

Senator John Cooke served as the Senate Minority Leader of the Colorado General Assembly until January 2023. He most recently served on the Legal Services Committee, the Senate Judiciary Committee, and the Legislative Emergency Preparedness, Response, and Recovery Committee.

Before joining law enforcement, he served in the U.S. Army National Guard with the 220th MP Company. He worked as a police officer in Breckenridge, Colorado, before becoming the undersheriff of Weld County, Colorado, and then being elected as sheriff. He was elected to the state senate in the 2014 election and reelected in 2018. During his tenure in the state senate, he has served as the Majority Whip, Assistant Minority Leader, and Minority Leader.

Senator Cooke is a graduate of the FBI National Academy and the Law Enforcement Executive Development Seminar in Quantico, VA, and the University of Northern Colorado.

Karl Wilmes

CJIS (Criminal Justice Information Systems) Compliance Officer

Karl Wilmes serves as eBodyGuard’s CJIS (Criminal Justice Information Systems) Compliance Officer. Karl retired as the Chief of Police for the City of Federal Heights, Colorado, in 2018. During his career in law enforcement, he led three agencies, including serving as Homeland Security Director for the state of Colorado and Deputy Director for the Colorado Bureau of Investigation (CBI). During his tenure at the CBI, Karl served as the State of Colorado CJIS Systems Officer. Karl has a broad range of local, state, and national experience in law enforcement, public safety and security. He has provided consulting services to Law Enforcement agencies in a variety of areas, focusing on CJIS data sharing, biometrics, strategic planning, investigations, training, and liability reduction.

John Mackey

Executive Director of Law Enforcement Alliances

John Mackey serves as Law Enforcement Ambassador and Advisory Board for eBodyGuard. He has been a law enforcement professional in three Colorado counties with five agencies for over 40 years – 20 as a police chief serving a resort town, urban city and two college/university campuses. John is the retired Chief of Police of Edgewater, CO. During his tenure he implemented CJIS standards, IT and eDiscovery enhancements and established a Property & Evidence Unit. He also developed a collaborative group of nine law enforcement CEO’s, the “Alliance 9”, which led Colorado’s best efforts in multiple collaborative grants and first ever projects that unified agencies for stronger community policing efforts. He has also served as Criminal Justice Adjunct Faculty and on the University of Colorado Leadership Council on Domestic Violence & Sexual Assault Prevention.

John holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Education from University of Massachusetts, Boston. John has received numerous awards, including the Denver Regional Council of Government’s Distinguished Service Award, an FBI Service Award, a Governor’s Service Award, Sheriff’s Star for the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, and the Lakewood Police Hall of Fame.

George Brauchler

Executive Director of Justice Strategies Alliances

George Brauchler is the former District Attorney for the 18th Judicial District in Colorado, the largest judicial district in the state with more than 930,000 residents in Arapahoe, Douglas, Elbert, and Lincoln Counties. A veteran litigator, Brauchler has taken more than 140 trials to verdict in state, federal, and military court over the past eighteen years, including several of the state’s most publicized cases, including the only prosecutor in the nation to have prosecuted three mass shootings including Columbine, Stem School Shooting and the Aurora Theatre Shooting. In addition, he has also been a regular adjunct faculty member of the University of Denver College of Law, Colorado Law, and the U.S. Army and U.S. Navy JAG Schools, earning a reputation as one of the most prolific lecturers and trainers on trial advocacy in the nation.

Brauchler, who is a Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve, has served as Chief of Military Justice for Fort Carson and with the 4th Infantry Division and the U.S. Division-North in Iraq.

Brauchler was intimately involved in the first judicial district ever to pilot, execute, and provide the incubation necessary for the first statewide Criminal eDiscovery solution in America. It is still in operation today.

Dr. Leigh Wall

Senior Managing Director of Smart, Safe Cities Alliances (America)

Dr. Leigh Wall, born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, graduated from Louisiana State University with a B.S. and M.S. in Education. She later earned a Doctorate in Educational Leadership from Walden University.

With 18 years of teaching experience in Louisiana and Texas, Dr. Wall also served as a principal and coached various school sports and fine arts programs. She retired in 2021 after 43 years in education, including 14 years as Superintendent of Santa Fe ISD.

Dr. Wall is an advocate for public education and school safety. After the tragic 2018 school shooting at Santa Fe High School, she began sharing her experiences to promote school safety nationwide. She collaborates with My eBodyguard to support safe and healthy environments in schools and communities.

LaEvening Woodard

LaEvening Woodard is a distinguished leader in public safety, whose career encompasses over three decades of dedicated service in law enforcement, educational security, and community engagement. She began her tenure with the Richardson Police Department in 1993 as a Telecommunicator and was promoted to Police Officer in 1999. In 2005, she transitioned to the Youth Crimes Division as a Detective, receiving advanced training through John E. Reid and Associates, the Juvenile Law Institute, IACP, and the Dallas Child Advocacy Center.

Ms. Woodard held critical roles such as Recruiter, Peer Support member, Oral Review Board member, TCOLE Instructor, Critical Incident Training Instructor, Negotiator, and Sergeant in the Negotiator Unit. She instructed at the Institute for Law Enforcement and Police Supervision and was named Officer of the Year in 2009. She holds a Master Peace Officer Certification from the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement.

In 2013, she was promoted to Sergeant and returned to the Patrol Division. She graduated from the School of Supervision at the Institute of Law Enforcement Administration as class president and completed training through IACP and the Women’s Leadership Institute. She supervised the School Resource Officer Unit, Backgrounds & Recruiting Unit, and the Youth Crimes Unit.

After retiring in 2018, she became Director of Safety and Security at Richardson ISD, managing training and enhancing security for 39,000 students and 6,800 employees. In 2022, she joined Region 10 Education Service Center as Safety & Security Program Coordinator, supporting 124 public and charter schools.

In 2023, Ms. Woodard became Chief of Public Safety and Community Alliance at eBodyGuard Corporation, leveraging her expertise to support technology programs and foster relationships with stakeholders across law enforcement, schools, and community organizations.

Justin Shirk

Strategic Technology Advisor

Mr. Shirk is a lifelong technologist, having spent 25 years building and securing public safety and defense systems. He currently serves as Managing Director for Mission Operations at Accenture, where he oversees a group of nearly 900 technology and strategy professionals focused on public mission systems. Mr. Shirk is a graduate of Virginia Tech in Management Science and Information Technology.

Vision

We are the Bridge to Smart, Safe Cities: Keeping you safe wherever you are™. eBodyGuard® connects our communities to public safety and health agencies through technology, people, and processes for all demographics, because we believe that connection creates safety.