Joseph Wheeler Elected IJIS Institute Chair

His primary goal is to help the institute continue fostering collaboration between government and industry organizations to enhance information sharing across the entire public sector

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (March 12, 2021) — Mission Critical Partners (MCP) announced today that Joseph Wheeler, the firm’s vice president of justice and courts, was elected chair of the IJIS Institute. The nonprofit institute — which is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year — works to expand information use in the public sector, including market segments such as public safety, justice, homeland security, health and human services, and transportation.

“The IJIS Institute has a long history of bringing together organizations from both government and industry to foster improved use of information technology and enhanced data integration, with the goal of improving public-safety and justice outcomes,” Wheeler said. “It is an honor to help the institute continue this important work as its chair.”

MCP and MTG Management Consultants — Wheeler’s former firm, which he cofounded, and which was acquired by MCP in February 2021 — both have long histories of involvement with the institute. So does Wheeler, who previously served on its board of directors. Last year he received the institute’s Robert P. Shumate National Public Safety Contributor to Excellence Award. Wheeler was recognized for his work over four decades in leading numerous projects that enabled justice and public-safety organizations to enhance data gathering, analysis, and sharing.

According to Wheeler, there is much work still to do. A primary focus is to see the institute create a collaborative environment for conceptualizing, developing, and applying standards-based solutions that enable seamless bidirectional information sharing across the entire ecosystem, i.e., public safety (primarily the law enforcement and 911 communities), justice/courts, and corrections.

“The idea is to connect the dots between these sectors and the communications technologies that they use,” Wheeler said. “This means breaking down silos and knitting together disparate organizations to enhance technology integration and ultimately information sharing.”

Another focus is to increase the institute’s lineup of subject-matter-specific committees and working groups to expand thought leadership, which in turn will lead to better solutions to solve some of the ecosystem’s most vexing technology challenges. A prime example concerns moving public-safety and justice/courts communications infrastructure to the cloud.

“Cloud-based solutions are easier to update, upgrade, and replace, and are scalable. They also offer better resiliency and redundancy,” Wheeler said. “But the cloud environment is not well understood by public-sector organizations — I think the IJIS Institute can help change that.”

About Mission Critical Partners (MCP)
Mission Critical Partners (MCP) is a leading provider of data integration, consulting, and network and cybersecurity solutions specializing in transforming mission-critical communications networks into integrated ecosystems that improve outcomes in the public safety, justice, healthcare, transportation, and utility markets. Our comprehensive experience and vendor-agnostic approach helps us develop modernized solutions for our clients that achieve maximum value and optimal efficiency while mitigating risk. Additional information and career opportunities are available at http://www.MissionCriticalPartners.com