Where It Started
2013
Ron didn't begin behind a desk. He started inside a secure juvenile detention facility, assigned to the mental health unit — one of the most volatile environments in the entire juvenile justice system.
One officer to twelve kids. Double-staffed because incidents happened almost every other day. Youth carrying trauma so deep it had no language — only behavior. Kids who could shift from calm to full crisis in under five seconds, not because they were bad, but because nobody had ever helped them understand what was happening inside them.
That unit taught Ron something no certification program ever could: that behind almost every destructive behavior is a reason. A history. A wound that was never treated. And that once you understand the reason, you can actually reach the kid.
That experience didn't just shape how Ron does his job. It shaped how he sees every young person in crisis — and every parent desperate to understand them.
The Career — Built from the Inside Out
Juvenile Supervision Officer
2013 – 2014
Secure placement facility. Mental health unit, then drug unit. Daily crisis intervention, physical restraints, incident documentation. Direct front-line exposure to the highest-need youth in the county, in the most high-pressure environment in the system.
Case Aide
December 2014 – March 2016
This is where the full picture came into focus. Ron gained access to psychological evaluations, court orders, family histories, and case databases. He learned to read a clinical diagnosis and connect it to the behavior he had already seen with his own eyes. He learned why kids do what they do — not just what they did.
During this period Ron effectively managed an entire probation unit, overseeing communications, coordinating between officers and administration, and carrying out supervisory responsibilities without the official title. He was running the unit before he ever had the authority to do so.
Juvenile Probation Officer
March 2016
Field officer. Real homes, real families, real problems showing up on the doorstep. Food insecurity. Housing instability. Schools pushing kids out. Substance abuse starting at ten years old. Parents who wanted to help but had no idea how. Ron didn't just supervise caseloads — he connected families to resources, navigated court requirements alongside them, and learned how to communicate with kids that the system had already written off as lost causes.
Specialized JPO — Sex Offender & Mental Health Unit
October 2016 – Present
This is Ron's specialty. The cases most officers don't want and few are equipped to handle. Youth who have committed sexual offenses. Families in shock trying to hold themselves together. Ron coordinates with licensed treatment providers, oversees polygraph examinations, conducts family chaperone training, monitors school performance and attendance, and staffs complex cases on a continuous basis.
These are the highest-stakes, most sensitive cases in all of juvenile probation — and Ron has been handling them every week for nearly a decade.
What This Means for You
Ron has read hundreds of family histories that started exactly where yours might be right now.
A kid showing warning signs. A parent unsure whether to be worried or whether they're overreacting. A window of time that is still open — but won't be forever.
Most parents don't get access to what Ron knows until they're sitting in a courtroom wondering what they missed. He built YouthPivot to close that gap. To put the knowledge, the language, and the practical tools directly in the hands of the parents and guardians who are paying attention right now — before things escalate.
You don't have to wait for the system to tell you something is wrong. You can know earlier. You can act earlier. And earlier is everything.
Before the Badge
Ron competed as a Division II and professional basketball player. That path taught him early what he would spend the next twelve years applying — that pressure either builds a young person or breaks them, and that discipline, accountability, and one adult who refuses to give up can change the entire trajectory of a kid's life.
