Charlene became a northwest girl when, at the age of three, she and her family moved to Anchorage, Alaska. She grew up involved in an assortment of sports and various academic and civic organizations. With aspirations of becoming an attorney, she ventured off to college with her twin sister in 1993.
After a year of college on the East Coast, Charlene and her twin sister moved back to the northwest and attended Washington State University (WSU). There she was an Honors College graduate, earning a BA in Criminal Justice. It was during her time at WSU that she shifted her passion for justice away from the legal field and decided to focus her career on making a direct impact on the criminal justice system, focusing on prisons, jails, and community corrections.
In 1997, Charlene began graduate school at the University of Cincinnati, to pursue a PhD in Criminal Justice. While there, she began working as a trainer for multiple corrections agencies, training staff on risk assessment, delivery of effective correctional interventions and program evaluation. This was the beginning of her career as a consultant for prison, jails, and probation and parole departments which has spanned 20 years and more than 25 states.
In 2004, Charlene began her career as an educator, accepting a position as an Assistant Professor at Portland State University. During her time in Oregon, Charlene built relationships with local criminal justice agencies, eventually earning a gubernatorial appointment to the Juvenile Crime Prevention Commission. Charlene spent five years as a professor at California State University Bakersfield, before accepting a position at Boise State University in 2012. Over the course of her teaching career, Dr. Taylor shared her expertise with thousands of students in class covering criminological theory, corrections, drugs, gangs, and research and statistics.
Drawing on her experience as a researcher, consultant, and teacher, Drawing on her experience as a researcher, consultant, and teacher, Charlene moved to the nonprofit sector in 2016, becoming a Senior Trainer and Research Analyst for the Boston-based Crime and Justice Institute (CJI), while based in Boise. There she led the training team in the implementation of criminal justice reform efforts supported by the Justice Reinvestment Initiative. In her three years with CJI, she led veracious reform efforts that included curriculum development and staff training, strategic planning, program evaluation and development. One highlight of this work was the development of a statewide juvenile day reporting program for the state of West Virginia.
In 2018, Charlene was hired as a Senior Researcher at the National Council on Crime and Delinquency where she joined the team leading the organization’s justice initiatives. Currently, she supervises the organization’s risk assessment team, in addition to managing research and technical assistance projects and grant writing.
Charlene moved to Boise in 2012 and has spent the past eight years making Idaho her home. She lives in the Highlands area with her son, her partner, and his three children. She enjoys playing tennis at Camel’s Back Park, floating the Boise River, and spending time with her family and friends.