Steve Derene co-founded the National Association of VOCA Assistance Administrators (NAVAA) in 2001. Until his retirement in 2019, Derene served as the organization’s executive director, representing state agencies that administer state VOCA victim assistance grants.
Before his leadership at NAVAA, Derene worked for more than 25 years in the Wisconsin Justice Department. During his time as director of research and information, he oversaw public policy development and advocacy and all criminal justice and crime victims’ rights legislation, including the nation’s first Bill of Rights for Victims and Witnesses of Crime and Wisconsin’s 1993 state constitutional victims’ rights amendment. He subsequently managed the Wisconsin Victim/Witness Assistance program and the Wisconsin VOCA victim assistance program.
Derene has served as an expert consultant to the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office for Victims of Crime (OVC), for which he has also implemented numerous projects and studies. He also served several terms on the Board of the National Organization for Victim Advocacy (NOVA) and the National Victims’ Constitutional Amendment Network (NVCAN) and is on the advisory committee for various victim-related projects. Derene received the U.S. Attorney General’s National Crime Victim Service award, the Congressional Crime Victims Caucus Lois Haight Public Policy Award and NCVLI’s Victim Advocacy Award. He earned both his bachelor’s degree in communication arts and master’s degree in public policy and administration from the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
