Teresa Stroud is a senior program specialist at the PREA Resource Center’s Audit Quality and Integrity and Technical Assistance and Training divisions. Teresa has a significant work history in juvenile justice. She became certified as a PREA auditor in December 2015 while working to lead residential programs in the Texas Juvenile Justice Department (TJJD) toward compliance with PREA standards. In her former position as Senior Director of State Programs and Facilities with TJJD, Teresa and her staff worked with the Georgetown University Center for Juvenile Justice Reform to implement the Youth in Custody Practice Model as well as the Georgetown Program on Supporting LGBTQ youth. The Youth in Custody Practice Model focused on system reform in the areas of reducing racial and ethnic disparities, expanding family services, reducing lengths of stay, improving case management and normalizing living environments.
Teresa worked in the juvenile justice system as a youth rights specialist in residential facilities; abuse, neglect and exploitation investigator; program administrator; superintendent; and senior agency director. She was also an investigator in Child Protective Services for five years. She worked with nonprofits to develop family safety and alternatives to detention programs, and worked on system wide reforms in Texas over the past eleven years. In her capacity as Senior Director, Teresa was responsible for residential operations, treatment, the agency rehabilitation program, case management, victims services and all other ancillary services. Teresa possesses a masters of interdisciplinary studies from Stephen F. Austin State University and a master of science in criminal justice leadership & management from Sam Houston State University. She is also a fellow with the Center for Juvenile Justice Reform at Georgetown University.