The Veritas Institute is about relentlessly pursuing reform that will elevate public service and enhance community relations.
We seek to achieve this by setting the highest standards of instructorship, inspiring model behavior and field performance through innovative training, and working with academic professionals to continuously improve curricula. We believe that adherence to best practices and attention to emerging trends will result in meaningful cultural change.
This is how we envision creating a renewed cooperative partnership between the public and public service institutions and an improved human condition in our society.
Our Team
SGT Jim Kelly, CADCI, MRT
Business Development
Jim Kelly is a Sergeant with the Brick Township Police Department in Ocean County, NJ. He has been with the department since 2006. He has served as a Patrolman, a Marine Unit Operator, a Bicycle Patrol Unit Supervisor, Community Policing Supervisor, Public Information Officer, and liaison to the interfaith community. He has been a certified New Jersey police academy instructor since 2017, and ABLE National Instructor since 2021, and an IADLEST national instructor since 2023. Jim is a Master Resiliency Trainer, specializing in officer health and wellness, and an ICAT train-the-trainer, specializing in tactical communications and de-escalation when dealing with people in crisis. Jim’s expertise include certifications in CIT, identifying substance use disorders and disabilities, critical incident stress management, and mental health. Other areas of instruction include cultural diversity, community policing, public information officer, public relations, search and seizure, use of force, police culture, and Methods of Instruction. In addition to his service as a police Sergeant and instructor, Jim enjoys running, snowboarding, roller skating, travel, public speaking, and writing literature, from poetry to non-fiction. One of his articles on ethics in war was chosen for publication in the West Point Journal of Politics and Security. Jim is also a lifelong musician and actively writes and performs music in a variety of contexts.
Steven C. Gerding, PH.D
Training & Development
Nationally Certified Instructor by the International Association of Directors of Law Enforcement Standards and Training. Personal qualifications span over 40 years of professional experience in private security, law enforcement, military service, and higher education.
Retired Lieutenant from the Toms River Police Department serving as Patrol Division Watch Commander, Department Training Officer, Internal Affairs Investigator, Emergency Services Unit Assistant Commander, and temporary assignments in the Detective Bureau, as well as a variety of other duties including development of a number of significant programs such as the Field Training Officer Program and associated train-the-trainer curricula.
Retired Lieutenant Colonel in the Air Force Reserve serving as a Special Agent in the Air Force Office of Special Investigations with federal law enforcement credentials holding a Top Secret/SCI security clearance, only after enlisting in the New Jersey Air National Guard as a Security Policeman, later being commissioned a Second Lieutenant as an Intelligence Officer, and ultimately being selected for special assignment in the Air Force Reserve.
While mobilized after 9-11 in support of Operation Enduring Freedom and Noble Eagle, trained with the USAF Anti-Terrorism Specialty Team, then deployed to the Republic of Tajikistan as Detachment Commander in support of the counterintelligence mission for force protection.
Upon returning from overseas, was assigned as a Team Chief at the Global Terrorism Watch, Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland, and was subsequently selected by the Commander of the Air Force Office of Special Investigations to be the command representative at the Air Force Crisis Action Team, the Pentagon.
Service in higher education included being an adjunct college professor for both Ocean County College and The College of New Jersey, and full-time tenure track faculty member and assistant dean at Ocean County College. Currently the lead instructor for the Methods of Instruction course at the Ocean County Police Academy.
Earned a Ph.D. from Seton Hall University with dissertation examining An Analysis of the Relationship Between Higher Education and Police Misconduct in the New Jersey State Police.
Chris West, PH.D
Communications, Marketing, & Strategic Planning
Chris West is a marketing and business development professional with extensive prior experience in the nonprofit, public policy and education sectors.
Board Members
Alec Walen, J.D., Ph.D.
Alec Walen is a J.D., Ph.D., who is a Professor of Law at Rutgers Law School, with a cross appointment in the Program in Criminal Justice and the Department of Philosophy (Rutgers, New Brunswick). He served as the Director of the Program in Criminal Justice from July 2019 – June 2022. He is also a Co-Director of the Rutgers Institute for Law and Philosophy, an Associate Scholar at the Rutgers Center for Population-Leven Bioethics, and an Associate Editor at the journal Law and Philosophy.
Mrs. Tara B. Paxton, MPA, PP, AICP
Tara Paxton is the Township Planner, Grant Administrator, Affordable Housing Administrator, CRS Coordinator, Director of Community Development and Housing Liaison for the Township of Brick. She has worked for the Township of Brick in numerous positions since 2000. She worked at the N.J. Department of Environmental Protection, Rutgers University Office of Continuing Education and Monmouth County Planning Board as an Environmental Planner prior to beginning her career in Brick.
She’s a lifelong resident of the Township of Brick, has been married to her husband Gary for 24 years and has two college-aged daughters. She is active in her church, The Orthodox Christian Church of the Annunciation and serves on the Church Council as the Treasurer.
She is also an adjunct professor at Kean University in the Public Administration Department and has six years of teaching experience at the University level. She has developed curriculum for the Public Administration program including; Local and County Government in NJ, Budgeting for Non-Profits and Government, Grantsmanship, Intergovernmental Relations, Urban and Regional Planning: Critical Issues in Public Administration and Capstone Research in Public Administration.
Mrs. Paxton is a New Jersey Licensed Professional Planner and a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners. She works on multi-disciplinary planning projects including development and review, open space preservation, environmental compliance, hazard mitigation planning, affordable housing, plan endorsement, recreation planning, zoning, land use and grant management.
Mrs. Paxton has worked at all levels of local government including municipal, county and state agencies, primarily in the environmental and land use disciplines including coastal processes and regulation, watershed management, FEMA CRS compliance, and land use development and review. She also researches, writes and administers various grant programs including; N.J. Green Acres Acquisition and Development grants, U.S. Department of Justice grants in coordination with the Brick Police Department, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development grants as the Community Block Grant Program Director, U.S. Department of Agriculture grants for farmers market promotion, U.S. Department of Environmental Protection grants for water quality and coastal programming and various other non-profit and New Jersey grants.
Mrs. Paxton has her Master’s Degree in Public Administration from Kean University, Bachelor of Science Degree in Marine Science and a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Environmental Planning from Stockton University.