Holly Busby has a diverse career in criminal justice and social service spanning more than 30 years. She is the Deputy Director of the National Institute of Corrections (NIC), a federal agency of the U.S. Department of Justice. NIC is a leader in the field of criminal justice, providing innovative training, technical assistance, and information services to federal, state, tribal and local corrections agencies as well as public policymakers. In her current role, Holly oversees NIC’s portfolio of national programs and public outreach, and she leads NIC’s team of executives representing the NIC Jails, Prisons, Community Services, Academy, Financial Management, and Administration Divisions as well as communications staff. Holly is responsible for the management of NIC internal operations and is further involved in the strategic development, finance, and stakeholder relations of the agency.
Holly previously served as Chief of the NIC Community Services Division, which focuses on pretrial, probation, and parole. Holly, along with her exceptional team of National Programs Advisors, worked together to develop innovative projects to enhance correctional practice throughout the country. Some of those projects included Evidence-Based Decision Making, Pretrial Justice and Front End Interventions, the Parole Structured Decision Making Framework, Dosage Probation, Supporting and Facilitating Behavior Change, Justice-Involved Women, Trauma-Informed and Gender-Responsive programs, Justice-Involved Veterans, and Community Supervision Staff Health and Wellness. Prior to serving as Chief, Holly was a National Programs Advisor leading NIC’s Thinking For a Change Initiative and Facilitating Leadership Development Programs for the NIC Academy Division.
Before joining NIC, Holly worked as a Program Manager with Dodge-Fillmore-Olmsted (DFO) County Community Corrections in Rochester, MN. In that capacity, she was responsible for the supervision of the Corrections Probation, Supervised Release, Intensive Supervised Release, and Adult Sex Offense Supervision Units. Prior to becoming a manager with DFO Community Corrections, Holly served as a Senior Probation Agent, during which time she supervised various populations, including juveniles and adults convicted of sexual and domestic violence offenses, as well as individuals on intensive supervised release. Holly was a driving force behind the shift to evidence-based practices (EBP) in her agency, advocating for increased and ongoing trainings in motivational interviewing, case planning, level of service/case management inventory risk assessment, as well as population-specific trainings to keep direct supervision agents at the forefront of EBP.
Holly is a former Licensed Peace Officer through the State of Minnesota’s Post Board and worked in the patrol and civil/warrants divisions of the Olmsted County Sheriff’s Department. She also served as a certified DARE Officer. Holly has worked as a Victim Services Social Worker with DFO County Community Corrections serving as a Crime Victim’s Advocate, Sexual Assault Crisis Counselor and the Coordinator of the Victim Services Volunteer Program. Prior to that, Holly was a Child Protection Specialist with Dodge County Human Services, licensed through the State of Minnesota’s Board of Social Work.
