Page 20 - National Police Peer Intervention Executive Leadership and Training Conference

KEYNOTE PRESENTER
1BKenneth Polite
Chief Compliance Officer, Entergy Corp. Former U.S. Attorney (E.D. Louisiana)
Kenneth Polite was born to teenage parents and reared in the Lower Ninth Ward by a single mother. Despite his humble beginnings, Polite excelled academically during his formative years at Epiphany Elementary School before enrolling at De La Salle High School in New Orleans, where each year, he won a competitively-awarded full academic scholarship. Among his numerous distinctions and awards, Polite was named Student Body President, Louisiana Boys State Governor, and Class Valedictorian, the first African American to attain that distinction in the school’s history.
Mr. Polite is a graduate of Harvard University (B.A., Government) and Georgetown University Law Center (J.D., cum laude). While in law school, he served as Editor-in- Chief of the American Criminal Law Review's Fifteen Survey of White Collar Crime. Following law school, Mr. Polite served as a judicial clerk for the Honorable Thomas L. Ambro, Circuit Judge for the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.
Mr. Polite has practiced white collar criminal defense in New York City and New Orleans and served as a federal prosecutor in the Southern District of New York.
On June 27, 2013, President Barack Obama nominated Mr. Polite as the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Louisiana. On September 17, 2013, the U.S. Senate unanimously confirmed Mr. Polite's nomination, and he was sworn in on September 20, 2013. He served in that position until March 10, 2017.
As U.S. Attorney, Mr. Polite emphasized being Smart on Crime, utilizing enforcement, prevention, and reentry as tools to improve public safety. His Office, of over 120 public servants, prosecuted significant cases against violent crime, public corruption, civil rights violations, human trafficking, child pornography, and health care fraud. At the same time, Mr. Polite established Project LEAD, the Student Pledge Against Gun Violence, and the Crescent City Keepers mentor initiative, all with the goal of preventing and reducing youth violence. He also created the 30-2-2 reentry collaborative and the LEAP Program, to assist previously incarcerated individuals in successfully transitioning back into society.
In April 2015, Attorney General Lynch appointed Mr. Polite to serve on the Attorney General's Advisory Committee ("AGAC"). The AGAC serves as the voice of the 93 U.S. Attorneys across the nation and provides advice and counsel to the Attorney General
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