Milwaukee’s office for preventing violence is poised to have a familiar face as its newest leader.
Mayor Cavalier Johnson named Karin Tyler as his choice for new director of the city’s Department of Community Wellness and Safety on Feb. 10, less than two weeks after its former leader filed his resignation amid questions over his eligibility for the role.
Tyler will require Common Council approval before her appointment is completed.
“For the better part of a decade, Karin Tyler has worked with the city’s violence prevention activities,” Johnson said in a news release announcing the move. “Karin has led the department through successful transitions, and she has my strong support.”
Tyler is the former interim head of the department and was a one-time finalist to lead it, before Adam Procell got the job in 2025. Procell, who was convicted of a homicide when he was 15, submitted his resignation in January, after a City Attorney’s Office opinion said his felony makes him ineligible for the role.
Tyler will be the fourth person to run the department in the last four years, and she has a long history within the city and has dealt with violence in her life as well. Tyler’s son was shot and killed in 2011 during an armed burglary and her father died in a hit-and-run crash in 2017.
She’s said those experiences inform her work at the city.
Tyler started working for the city Health Department in 2008 and joined the violence prevention office in 2017.
After then-director Ashanti Hamilton’s departure from the office in January 2025, Tyler was named interim director and was one of three finalists for the permanent job.
Johnson chose a different candidate who declined the role and, in a surprise move, Johnson picked Procell over either of the other two finalists. His handling of the hiring process and decision to eschew the other finalists drew scrutiny.
The office has had a rocky history in recent years, beyond Procell’s short tenure.
In 2022, a former leader was fired after tensions boiled over after a trip to the White House that came against Johnson’s wishes. The next year, the office faced scrutiny over its slow spending of pandemic aid and questions of how it can prove its effectiveness.
By 2024, the office was moved out of the Department of Health and into the Department of Administration. Then, during the 2025 budget cycle, the city’s Common Council voted to shift it again, this time as a standalone department.
The idea, members said, was to provide a layer of oversight on the selection of the department’s leader. As a standalone department, the position requires council confirmation.
Recently Ald. Scott Spiker has said he has concerns over the office’s ability to find future funding, amid a challenging city budget environment and state law requirements that make moving funding difficult.
Tyler will speak at a community town hall meeting at 6 p.m. Feb. 19 at The Missing Peace – Community Collective, 3248 W. Brown St.
The pay range for the director position is between $110,197 and $158,909, according to the job posting the last time the position was vacant.
David Clarey is a public safety reporter at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. He can be reached at dclarey@gannett.com.
This story was updated to add new information.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: New pick for Milwaukee’s violence prevention office named
Reporting by David Clarey, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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