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Criminal Justice System innovation is something I am passionate about. I hope to prevent recidivism due to mental illness and addiction through problem solving courts. My vision is to have multiple courts serving different populations to make our community safer.

The staff of Knox County's Recovery, Veteran's Treatment and Mental Health Courts are simply anonymous heroes. The representatives of the District Attorney's Office and the District Public Defender, along with the program directors and case managers of these courts, each work unselfishly and tirelessly to change lives and prevent further criminal justice system involvement of participants.

Knoxville has a great need for mental health and substance abuse services, inpatient treatment for those with mental illness, and housing for persons with mental illness. Communities become stronger when we are compassionate toward our most vulnerable community members, and there are persons in our community who could have very productive lives and could contribute to our community with appropriate support and guidance.

In 1995, my infant daughter, Caitlyn, was diagnosed with leukemia. Her doctors knew that a bone marrow transplant would be the only treatment option, and my wife, Kim, and my daughter Lindsay, and I wanted to help grow the bone marrow registry in the hope that a match would be easier to find for Caitlyn. Our church, Middlebrook Pike United Methodist, hosted a bone marrow donor drive, and we were surprised to learn that the Knoxville drive was the largest ever at the time. The response by Knoxville was amazing. It was a beautiful bright spot in an otherwise difficult time.

Contempt of Court, by Leroy Phillips and Mark Curriden

My mother, Joan Cerny, told me that I would "always be her Little Bird" when I was about 3 or 4 years old. When I was twenty something and feeling the disappointment from some failure, I recalled her comment while feeding fast food scraps to some sparrows near my outdoor table. It was good to remember that she would always view me as her cute, tender, precious "Little Bird" regardless of whether I "made it big" or not. But her tender comment also reminds me that Everyone is someone's "Little Bird." I try to remember that every person I come in contact with is cute and tender and precious to somebody.

At 16 years old, I honestly thought that I would have a career in professional sports. I would tell 16 year old me that although I would always love competitive sports, I would come to love other things like music and the study of history and reading and even other sports than the ones I played in high school. I wish someone had told me that I would not hurt my athletic career if I had taken guitar lessons or taken extra history classes. And I really wish that I had become a more proficient reader earlier in life.