Michael Cifelli

Background

About Michael Cifelli

After completing by Honours Bachelor of Arts at the University of Toronto's Mississauga campus I graduated from York University, receiving my Master of Arts via their Sociology program. My thesis focused on Gladue courts and sentencing guidelines contained in the Criminal Code of Canada, contrasting them with then-recent mandatory minimum sentencing legislation. The research involved 8 months of observation and transcription of court cases followed by 10 months of analysis and writing, culminating in a paper over 300 pages in length and including 11 cross-tabulated data tables. I am currently acting Regional Trainer for the Ontario Ministry of the Attorney General's Court Services Division (CSD), and prior to now had previously worked as a Trial Coordinator at the Ontario Court of Justice, advancing in succession from my three previous positions of Court & Client Representative, Court Clerk & Registrar, and Court Services Officer. I have extensive experience in independent research on criminological topics, particularly with regards to qualitative research and issues of public safety. My experiences as a research assistant provided me extensive opportunities to perform in-depth research, collection, analysis, and discussions on organized crime exposed by the Charbonneau Commission. My Master’s thesis and coursework demonstrated my ability to perform long-term qualitative and quantitative analyses involving contemporary topics and issues such as recent legislative changes, Aboriginal peoples and criminal courts, and campus safety/security. As acting Regional Trainer, and prior to that when working in other positions, I became familiar with Adult Learning Principles and began coordinating and developing training sessions for new and current staff. These activities have given me extensive experience in preparing/designing training material, supervising the trainees, collecting feedback, noting training goals, conducting needs assessments, and leading training sessions themselves. Following each session any feedback received would be utilized to tailor or refine future sessions, either for the same trainees as their learning and development continued or to provide a more fulsome experience for the next group of trainees.