New SMART Policy Advisors

With the addition of three new policy advisors—Stephanie LoConto, Scott Matson, and Allison Turkel—SMART now has a full complement of advisors to assist jurisdictions with SORNA implementation issues.

Prior to joining the SMART staff, Stephanie LoConto served as an assistant attorney general in the Office of the Attorney General for the District of Columbia and was a staff attorney in the National District Attorneys Association's (NDAA) National Juvenile Justice Prosecution Center as well as in NDAA's Drug Prosecution and Prevention Program. Before joining NDAA, she served as a law clerk to the Honorable William I. Cowin of the Massachusetts Appeals Court. Ms. LoConto received her bachelor's degree, summa cum laude, in history and American studies from Boston College and her law degree, with honors in litigation and dispute resolution, from Boston University School of Law. Ms. LoConto is a member of the Massachusetts and District of Columbia bars.

Before joining SMART, Scott G. Matson worked as a program manager at the JEHT Foundation in New York City. Also in New York, he served as the Associate Director of the Vera Institute of Justice's Center on Sentencing and Corrections. Prior to joining Vera, Mr. Matson was a research associate for the Center for Effective Public Policy's Center for Sex Offender Management. He began his career at the Washington State Institute for Public Policy, where he evaluated not only the state's compliance with the Jacob Wetterling Act, but also surveyed all 50 states' efforts to comply with the Act. Mr. Matson received his bachelor's degree in sociology from Western Washington University and his master's degree in criminology and criminal justice from the University of Maryland, College Park.

Prior to joining the SMART Office, Allison Turkel served as Director of NDAA's National Center for Prosecution of Child Abuse (NCPCA). Prior to that appointment, she was the Chief of Training for NDAA's child abuse programs, which included NCPCA and the National Child Protection Training Center. Before NDAA, Ms. Turkel was an assistant state's attorney in McLean County, Illinois, for 18 months and an assistant district attorney in the New York County District Attorneys Office for 9 years. Prior to becoming a prosecutor, Ms. Turkel spent 8 years as a police officer. She received her bachelor's degree from the University of Pennsylvania and her juris doctor degree from Temple University.