about Jeff Wallace

Jeff Wallace speaks to the people who work with youth every day, bringing a rare 360-degree perspective shaped by lived experience, professional leadership, and decades inside juvenile justice and youth-serving systems.

His understanding of the justice system began early. By age 12, Jeff was on probation. By 14, he was placed in residential treatment. At 17, he was waived to adult court and sentenced to prison, where he would spend six years of his life, including four years in solitary confinement.

After his release, Jeff rebuilt his life through education, service, and leadership. He earned a Master’s Degree in Criminal Justice from St. Ambrose University and went on to build a career across direct service, crisis intervention, child welfare, facility oversight, higher education, and leadership within youth-serving systems.

Jeff’s professional journey began in direct service, including volunteering at the same facility he had once escaped from as a young person. He later joined the staff there and continued working his way into leadership roles within residential treatment and juvenile detention settings, eventually serving as superintendent of youth-serving facilities.

He also worked as a social worker for Iowa’s Department of Human Services and as a crisis interventionist for more than eight years. Later, as a Health Facilities Surveyor for the State of Iowa’s Department of Inspection and Appeals, Jeff investigated complaints and monitored youth-serving facilities, including residential facilities, juvenile detention centers, youth emergency shelters, foster care and adoption services, and adolescent psychiatric units.

In addition to his work in the field, Jeff served as an Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice and Human Services, educating future professionals and bringing real-world insight into the classroom.

What makes Jeff’s experience especially powerful is that he has seen these systems from nearly every side: as a young person inside them, as a frontline worker, as a leader, as a facility inspector, as an educator, and as a speaker working to strengthen the professionals who serve youth today.

Appointed by the Governor, Jeff served from 2018 to 2020 on Iowa’s Juvenile Justice Advisory Council, contributing to oversight of federal juvenile justice funding and planning efforts to improve Iowa’s juvenile justice system.

Jeff has also shared his message on the TEDx stage. In his 2015 TEDx Naperville Talk, “An Insider’s Plan for Rehabilitating the Juvenile Justice System,” he addressed what happens when young people are treated as adults within the justice system and why more meaningful pathways forward are needed. In his 2019 TEDx Davenport Talk, “Being Informed to Trauma,” he explored how trauma and past experiences can shape behavior, and how that understanding can help adults engage with young people in ways that may change the trajectory of their lives.

Today, Jeff continues to work in leadership within systems serving young people while using his voice, experience, and expertise to encourage and equip the professionals who work with youth every day. His message resonates with audiences in juvenile justice, child welfare, education, residential care, detention, treatment, probation, and other youth-serving fields.

Through Jeff Wallace Speaks LLC, Jeff offers keynotes, presentations, training, and consulting that bring together lived experience, professional expertise, and decades of justice-system insight. His work challenges outdated thinking, strengthens the people doing the work, and helps create better outcomes for youth, families, organizations, and communities.