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Merit Board

BOARD MEMBERS

 

 

Mr. Tim Touhy, Chairman

of Oak Lawn, Illinois was appointed to the Merit Board by Governor JB Pritzker in July of 2022 with a term ending in March 2026. Touhy is a longtime public relations and public affairs consultant with keen insight into criminal law and civil litigation. He has served as a spokesperson for the Cook County State's Attorney's Office, working closely with former Cook County State's Attorneys Cecil A. Partee, Jack O'Malley and Richard A. Devine as well as their top prosecutors. Tim also served as an assistant press secretary to former Illinois Governor Jim Edgar. He has spearheaded local, regional and national public relations campaigns as a vice president at the public relations firm of Hill & Knowlton in its Chicago and Washington offices.  Touhy also served in a senior communications position at Navistar International Corporation. He is also a member the Torture Inquiry and Relief Commission. Touhy currently serves as the communications director for Friends of the Chicago River.

 

Ms. Michelle D. Carrera, Secretary

of Chicago, Illinois was appointed to the Merit Board by Governor JB Pritzker in January 2023 with a current term ending March of 2026. Ms. Carrera has more than 20 years of experience as Vice President of Human Resources for Hydro, Incorporated, a privately held international industrial business with headquarters and two service centers in Chicago.  Ms. Carrera developed and implemented Human Performance Improvement programs for Hydro’s Chicago locations and presently oversees Quality/Safety/Risk Management for North America. 

 

Dr. Raymond C. Garcia, Board Member 

of Roscoe, Illinois was appointed to the Merit Board by Governor JB Pritzker in March of 2022 with a term ending in March 2026.  Dr. Raymond Garcia oversees clinical treatment and care at the Rosecrance Harrison Adult Campus.  He is board-certified in psychiatry and neurology, licensed in Illinois, a member of Illinois Psychiatric Society and a fellow of the American Psychiatric Association.  Dr. Garcia is also a board-certified Addictionologist by the American Board of Addiction Medicine, ABAM.  Dr. Garcia is on faculty at the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Rockford, where he has received the Golden Apple, Mentor of the Year, and Distinguished Teaching Awards.  He joined Rosecrance in 2009.    
 
 

Dr. Michelle Hoy-Watkins, Psy.D., ABPP, Board Member

of Chicago, Illinois was appointed to the Merit Board by Governor JB Pritzker in February of 2023 with a term ending in March 2025.  Dr. Hoy-Watkins is a licensed clinical psychologist with more than 20 years of experience providing clinical, forensic, and police & public safety psychological services.  She is board certified in Police & Public Safety Psychology by the American Board of Professional Psychology (ABPP).  As a police psychologist, her work has included conducting pre-employment psychological screenings, fitness for duty evaluations, campus and workplace violence risk and threat assessment, and relevant training for various law enforcement agencies. Dr. Hoy-Watkins has extensive expertise conducting criminal forensic evaluations including competency to stand trial, competency to participate in immigration proceedings, criminal responsibility, sentencing and mitigation and juvenile transfer waiver cases. She has served as an expert witness in county, state, and federal courts proceedings. Dr. Hoy-Watkins serves as a Threat Assessment Consultant for Advocate Health. Prior to this role, she worked for Northwestern University Police Department as the University’s first Director of Threat Assessment. In her role, she led the university’s multidisciplinary threat assessment team to mitigate the potential for campus violence, provided indirect threat assessments and direct violence risk evaluations of individuals who impacted the personal safety of students and other community members. She remains an affiliate Assistant Professor at Northwestern University's Department of Clinical Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Forensic Division. Prior to Northwestern, Dr. Hoy-Watkins served as Chair of the Department of Forensic Psychology at The Chicago School of Psychology.  Dr. Hoy-Watkins is the Chair of the Police and Public Safety Section Division 18 of the American Psychological Association. She is a Board Member of the American Board of Police & Public Safety Psychology (ABPPSP), and serves as President-elect of the ABPPSP Academy. 

 

Mr. William D. Stiehl, Board Member

of Belleville, Illinois was appointed to the Merit Board by Governor JB Pritzker in March of 2023 with a term ending in March 2027.  Mr. William D. Stiehl is an attorney in private practice in Belleville, Illinois.  Judge Stiehl is a former Circuit Judge in the Twentieth Judicial Circuit in St. Clair County where he was responsible for a major civil jury docket.  Prior to his appointment as a Circuit Judge, Judge Stiehl was an attorney in private practice for more than 40 years during which he represented public bodies and individual clients in civil and criminal litigation in federal and state courts throughout Southern Illinois.  Judge Stiehl was instrumental in forming Family Hospice, a non-profit organization which provides hospice services in the Belleville area at no cost to its patients, and is a member of the Board of Directors of the Greater East St. Louis Community Fund, which provides college scholarships to students and recreational and educational opportunities for younger students from East St. Louis.   

 


BOARD STAFF

 

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, Emily E. Fox
CHIEF LEGAL COUNSEL, Daniel R. Dykstra
INFORMATION SYSTEMS ANALYST, Eric Garvue 

 

 

 


ANNUAL REPORTS

 

Click the link below to view the Illinois State Police Merit Board's annual reports.