Legacy Friday: Chevi Amrein—Leading with Strength and Serving with Humanity

After honoring the leaders who carried the vision of CPOF’s Founding Five forward, Legacy Friday now turns toward those entrusted with leading the Foundation today. We begin with Chevi Amrein—an accomplished correctional leader, longtime Honor Guard Commander, victims’ rights advocate and the first woman elected Chairman of CPOF’s Board of Directors. Her legacy is still being written, but the foundation of that legacy has been clear from the beginning: service rooted in strength, empathy and humanity.

Legacy is not only what someone leaves behind.

It is also what a leader builds through the decisions they make, the people they serve and the mission they prepare for those who will follow.

For more than four decades, generations of CPOF leaders have inherited the same promise from the five correctional officers who founded the organization:

Remember the fallen.

Stand beside their surviving families.

Support correctional professionals during the darkest moments of their lives.

Take care of our own.

Today, that responsibility is carried by CPOF Chairman Chevi Amrein.

Chevi’s connection to CPOF began at the very start of her correctional career. It grew through more than two decades of service, promotions, Honor Guard leadership, disaster response, victims’ advocacy and a continued commitment to the correctional family.

In October 2025, Chevi became the first woman elected Chairman of CPOF’s Board of Directors.

It was a historic moment for the Foundation.

But her story is about far more than being first.

It is about the kind of leadership she brings to the position: visible, compassionate, direct and grounded in service.

Welcomed Into the CPOF Family

Chevi began her career with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation in 2003 as a Correctional Officer at High Desert State Prison.

That same year, while attending the California Basic Correctional Peace Officer Academy, she became a supporting member of CPOF.

Her introduction to the Foundation came through three women with deep connections to its history: Char Corby, wife of Founding Director Larry Corby; Carol Novey, wife of founder Don Novey; and Rachel Lee, then a longtime CPOF Administrator and now the Foundation’s Executive Director.

That beginning carries special meaning.

Chevi entered the CPOF family through women who understood the mission not simply as an organization or charitable program, but as a deeply personal commitment.

Char and Carol had stood beside two of the men who created CPOF. They had watched the Foundation grow from an idea shared by a small group of correctional officers into a national promise to correctional professionals and their families.

Rachel had helped turn that promise into daily action through years of service inside the organization.

They introduced Chevi to CPOF at the beginning of her career.

More than two decades later, she would become the first woman entrusted with leading its Board.

The connection between those moments reflects how a legacy is carried forward.

One generation opens the door.

The next walks through it, serves and eventually holds the door open for those who follow.

Beginning Behind the Walls

Chevi began at High Desert State Prison in Susanville, California, an institution where the demands of correctional work quickly test judgment, composure and resilience.

Correctional Officers must learn to observe what others overlook, respond when circumstances change without warning and maintain professionalism under pressure.

They must also learn to depend on one another.

That understanding of shared responsibility became central to Chevi’s leadership.

She knew the correctional profession from its front line before advancing into supervisory, counseling and administrative positions. She experienced the realities of working behind the walls and understood that policies developed at higher levels ultimately affect the people carrying them out inside an institution.

Chevi promoted to Correctional Sergeant and later moved into the correctional-counseling classification.

She served as a Correctional Counselor I and Correctional Counselor II Specialist, including work as High Desert State Prison’s Litigation Coordinator.

These roles required a different kind of expertise.

They called for careful documentation, case analysis, knowledge of policy and law, communication across disciplines and an ability to address complicated issues without losing sight of the individuals involved.

Chevi continued advancing.

In 2016, she promoted to Correctional Counselor II Supervisor and went on to serve as a Correctional Captain and Associate Warden at California Correctional Center.

She later returned to High Desert State Prison, where she has served as the Americans with Disabilities Coordinator and Associate Warden.

Her progression reflects the breadth of her correctional experience.

She has worked in custody, counseling, litigation coordination, supervision and executive administration. She understands institutional operations from multiple perspectives because she has carried responsibility at nearly every level.

Each promotion expanded her authority.

More importantly, each expanded the number of people who depended upon her leadership.

Leadership Rooted in Humanity

Correctional leadership is sometimes misunderstood as the ability to issue directions, enforce rules or remain unmoved by difficult circumstances.

Chevi’s career demonstrates a broader definition.

Strength and empathy are not opposites.

Accountability and humanity can exist together.

A leader can make difficult decisions while still recognizing the person affected by them.

This balance has become one of the defining qualities of Chevi’s service.

Her leadership is direct, but it is also personal. She understands that institutions are operated by people with families, histories, challenges and responsibilities beyond the uniform.

She also understands the humanity of those who live within correctional institutions.

Recognizing that humanity does not diminish safety or accountability. It strengthens the professionalism with which correctional staff carry out their responsibilities.

Chevi has repeatedly demonstrated that the best correctional leadership does not require someone to choose between strength and compassion.

It requires both.

More Than 15 Years of Honor Guard Leadership

Since 2007, Chevi has served as Joint Honor Guard Commander for California Correctional Center and High Desert State Prison.

Honor Guard service requires extraordinary precision, discipline and emotional steadiness.

Its members are entrusted with representing their departments during the most solemn moments in the correctional profession. They stand beside grieving families, honor fallen officers, preserve ceremonial traditions and ensure that a person’s service is recognized with dignity.

The work is visible in its uniforms, formations and ceremonies.

Its emotional weight is often less visible.

Honor Guard members must remain composed while standing near a family experiencing profound loss. They must perform every movement with precision while understanding the meaning behind it.

As a Commander, Chevi has been responsible not only for ceremonial execution, but also for preparing team members to carry that responsibility.

She has taught officers that honor is expressed through details.

It is found in a properly folded flag.

It is found in the discipline of a formation.

It is found in standing watch when a family should never have needed an Honor Guard at all.

This experience aligns closely with CPOF’s mission.

CPOF promises surviving families that their loved ones will not be forgotten. Honor Guard service makes that promise visible.

Long before becoming Chairman, Chevi was already helping fulfill it.

Answering the Call During the Camp Fire

In November 2018, the Camp Fire devastated Butte County and became the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in California history.

Communities were destroyed.

Families were displaced.

First responders and correctional professionals worked under extraordinary conditions while many faced losses of their own.

Chevi responded by assisting officers and community members affected by the disaster.

Her efforts became part of a larger CDCR response recognized during the 2019 Medal of Valor Ceremony. Chevi and other employees received the Unit Citation for demonstrating exceptional humanity, compassion and empathy while assisting their brothers, sisters and neighbors in Butte County.

The recognition reflected more than emergency response.

It demonstrated what service looks like when professional duty and human need meet.

Disasters do not wait for convenient circumstances.

They require people willing to move toward the need, organize assistance and remain present when others are overwhelmed.

Chevi’s response embodied the same principle at the center of CPOF’s Catastrophic Assistance Program.

When a correctional professional’s life changes without warning, the correctional family responds.

No one should have to endure catastrophe alone.

A Voice for Victims and Survivors

Chevi has also been recognized by CDCR’s Office of Victim and Survivor Rights and Services for her advocacy and work promoting victims’ rights.

Victims’ advocacy requires listening to people whose lives have been permanently changed by violence, loss or trauma.

It requires patience, sensitivity and a willingness to ensure that victims and survivors are not overlooked as systems and processes move forward.

That work carries directly into CPOF’s mission.

At PROJECT 2000, surviving families arrive carrying grief that may be recent or decades old. Assault survivors speak about incidents that changed their bodies, careers and sense of safety. Coworkers remember colleagues who never came home.

They do not need their experiences reduced to a case number or ceremony.

They need to be seen.

Chevi has helped provide that recognition.

During CPOF Recognition Luncheons, she has read the accounts of correctional professionals who survived serious assaults. These stories require more than a recitation of facts. They require someone who understands the courage behind them and can honor the person without allowing the circumstances to define their entire life.

Her victims’ rights work and CPOF service are connected by a shared responsibility:

Listen carefully.

Acknowledge what happened.

Honor the courage required to continue.

Make certain the individual knows they have not been forgotten.

PROJECT 2000: A Promise Made Visible

Chevi’s leadership within CPOF is perhaps most visible at PROJECT 2000.

PROJECT brings together surviving families, assault survivors, correctional professionals, Honor Guard teams, volunteers and supporters from across the country.

It is a memorial gathering, but it is also a reunion.

Families return year after year because CPOF’s commitment does not end after one ceremony or one presentation of assistance.

Chevi has described PROJECT as more than an event.

It is a promise.

It is the promise that fallen correctional professionals will be remembered, that their families will always have a place within CPOF and that the correctional profession will continue standing beside its own.

At PROJECT 2000 XXXVII, Chevi welcomed those gathered at the opening dinner as CPOF’s Chairman.

She looked out at a room containing families of the fallen, assault survivors, correctional leaders, Honor Guard members, field representatives, volunteers and supporters.

What she saw was a family.

A family shaped by strength.

A family marked by resilience.

A family connected by a bond that only those who understand the correctional profession can fully appreciate.

As Chairman, Chevi now helps safeguard the event and the promise it represents.

Standing Where Remembrance Happens

Chevi’s commitment to remembrance is not limited to PROJECT.

She has represented CPOF at memorials and ceremonies honoring correctional professionals across the country.

She stood with CPOF’s National Honor Guard and state teams while honoring Virginia Master Corrections Officer Jeremy Lewis Hall, ensuring that his service, sacrifice and family were recognized by the national correctional community.

In Colorado, she joined Senior Field Representative Guy Edmonds, volunteers Bridgett and Randy Bolinger and members of the National Honor Guard as fallen correctional professionals received long-overdue inclusion in the Colorado Law Enforcement Memorial.

At Attica, she represented CPOF’s commitment to remembering the correctional staff who died and honoring the survivors and families whose lives were forever changed by the events of September 1971.

These appearances matter.

A Board Chair’s presence communicates that remembrance is not a ceremonial obligation delegated to someone else.

It is central to the Foundation’s purpose.

Chevi has stood where the names are read, where flags are folded and where families gather.

She understands that leadership sometimes means speaking.

Sometimes it means listening.

And sometimes it means simply standing beside someone so they do not have to stand alone.

Returning to Her Old Stomping Grounds

In May 2026, Chevi returned to High Desert State Prison—her “old stomping grounds”—to recognize and show appreciation for the institution’s staff.

During the visit, an incident occurred on the yard.

Staff responded quickly and professionally, providing an immediate reminder of the realities correctional professionals manage every day.

For Chevi, the incident was not an abstract example of institutional operations.

These were people doing the work she had once performed, inside the institution where her career began.

The visit reflected an important quality in her leadership: she has not forgotten where she started.

Advancing into administration and national leadership can create distance from those working on the front line.

Chevi continues to return.

She sees their work.

She recognizes the professionalism required to respond when conditions change in an instant.

She understands that CPOF’s mission must remain connected to the people serving behind the walls today.

Expanding the Meaning of the Correctional Family

Chevi has also helped CPOF reach professionals whose work may fall outside traditional definitions of corrections but who share many of the same risks and responsibilities.

At the Department of State Hospitals–Coalinga Mental Health Awareness Fun Run, she joined CPOF representatives in recognizing that the correctional family includes more than custody staff inside prisons.

It includes hospital police officers, psychiatric technicians, nurses, clinicians, administrative employees and support professionals serving secure environments and justice-involved populations.

This inclusive understanding matters.

CPOF was created by Correctional Officers, but its promise has grown to include eligible professionals across state, county, federal, juvenile, probation, parole and secure hospital systems.

Chevi understands that titles and agency structures may differ while the need for support remains the same.

The Foundation’s responsibility is to recognize the people performing the work and ensure they know they belong.

Becoming CPOF’s First Woman Chairman

In October 2025, CPOF’s Board of Directors elected Chevi Chairman.

For the first time in the Foundation’s history, a woman held its highest Board leadership position.

The significance of that moment reaches back to CPOF’s earliest years.

The Foundation was created by five male Correctional Officers during an era when women held far fewer positions within institutional custody and correctional leadership.

Women were nevertheless essential to CPOF from the beginning.

They helped build the organization, operated its programs, supported its founders, worked with families, volunteered at PROJECT and ensured that compassion remained at the center of its mission.

Char Corby and Carol Novey were among the women who introduced Chevi to CPOF in 2003.

Rachel Lee helped welcome her into membership and later became CPOF’s Executive Director.

Chevi’s election did not begin women’s leadership within CPOF.

It made that leadership visible in a new way.

Her appointment also reflected the progression of women throughout corrections.

Chevi began as an officer at a maximum-security institution and advanced through custody, counseling and administration. She became an Honor Guard Commander, Captain, Associate Warden, National Director and Chairman.

Each role once offered women fewer opportunities than it does today.

By reaching the Board’s highest position, Chevi created another example for the women who will follow her.

The importance of being first is not found only in occupying a position.

It is found in ensuring that being first makes it easier for someone else not to be the last.

Inheriting the Founders’ Promise

Chevi’s chairmanship carries a special connection to the Founding Five.

Her CPOF membership began through the wives of Larry Corby and Don Novey.

She later served on the Board with leaders who had worked directly beside CPOF’s founders.

She became Chairman after the Foundation had lost four of the five men who created it and as Don Novey’s role increasingly represented a living connection to CPOF’s earliest history.

Chevi now leads during a period when the Foundation must preserve that history while preparing for its future.

The responsibility is substantial.

CPOF must continue honoring fallen correctional professionals and supporting their surviving families.

It must maintain a responsible and compassionate Catastrophic Assistance Program.

It must expand membership so that future assistance remains possible.

It must reach professionals who do not yet know CPOF exists.

It must support its Field Representatives, volunteers and National Honor Guard.

It must preserve the trust placed in it by supporting members and families throughout the country.

And it must do all of this without losing the personal care that defined the organization when five officers first decided their profession needed to take care of its own.

Chevi understands that growth cannot come at the expense of humanity.

The Foundation may become larger, more structured and more nationally visible.

Its heart must remain personal.

A Chair Who Shows Up

Chevi’s leadership is not confined to Board meetings.

She attends memorials.

She stands with Honor Guard teams.

She visits institutions.

She recognizes assault survivors.

She supports victims and surviving families.

She participates in events that expand CPOF’s reach.

She returns to the places where correctional staff are performing the work.

That visibility gives meaning to her title.

A Chair can guide policy and oversee governance, but the strongest understanding of CPOF’s mission comes from being present with the people the Foundation serves.

Chevi leads with a boots-on-the-ground understanding of the correctional profession.

She knows that a national organization must still feel personal when it enters an institution, meets a grieving family or responds to someone facing catastrophe.

She also understands that leadership is strengthened by the people surrounding it.

Chevi has spoken about the importance of surrounding ourselves with greatness—people with servant hearts who bring their experience, talents and compassion to a shared mission.

That is not simply a philosophy about assembling a strong Board or team.

It reflects the way CPOF succeeds.

No one person takes care of our own.

It requires members, staff, representatives, volunteers, Honor Guard teams, correctional leaders, families and supporters working together.

The Chairman’s responsibility is not to stand above that family.

It is to help lead from within it.

A Legacy Still Being Written

Chevi’s Legacy Friday story differs from those of Ed Barcliff and Jim Brown.

Their chapters are complete, even though their influence remains.

Don Dease’s formal Board service has concluded, while his wisdom continues through his role as CPOF’s first Board Member Emeritus.

Chevi is leading now.

Her decisions are becoming part of the history future generations will inherit.

Her legacy will be shaped by how CPOF cares for families, strengthens membership, supports its representatives, honors its history and prepares new leaders during her tenure.

That work is ongoing.

But the values guiding it have already been demonstrated throughout her career.

Strength without losing compassion.

Authority without losing humanity.

Tradition without becoming trapped in the past.

Progress without forgetting where the mission began.

Chevi’s leadership represents a new chapter for CPOF, but it remains rooted in the original promise.

The Leader and the Legacy

Today, we recognize Chevi Amrein:

A Correctional Officer who began her career at High Desert State Prison.

A Sergeant, Correctional Counselor, Litigation Coordinator, Captain and Associate Warden.

An administrator trusted to protect access, accountability and institutional operations.

A Joint Honor Guard Commander who has spent more than 15 years ensuring that correctional professionals receive the dignity and honor they deserve.

A responder who demonstrated humanity, compassion and empathy during the devastating Camp Fire.

An advocate recognized for promoting victims’ rights.

A CPOF member since her academy days.

A National Director who learned from those who carried the founders’ vision before her.

The first woman elected Chairman of CPOF’s Board of Directors.

A leader whose legacy is still being written.

Chevi entered the CPOF family through women closely connected to its founders.

Today, she leads the organization those founders created.

The distance between those moments represents more than professional advancement.

It represents trust earned through more than two decades of service.

Chevi now carries a promise that began before she entered corrections—a promise passed from one generation of CPOF leaders to the next.

Remember the fallen.

Honor the survivors.

Stand beside the families.

Support the people doing the work.

Lead with strength.

Serve with humanity.