Louis Molina

Welcome.

During his four years on active duty in the Marine Corps, Louis served with the 2nd Battalion 3rdMarine Division and deployed to various parts of Asia. During his service, he was awarded the National Defense Service Medal with star, Navy Achievement Medal, Good Conduct Medal, Meritorious Mast, and Sea Service Deployment Ribbon for deployment on the USS Kitty Hawk. 

Near the end of his time in active duty, Louis chose to pursue a degree from Chaminade University in Honolulu. Shortly after receiving his BA in Philosophy, he sought a career in law enforcement and was appointed in early 2000 to the New York City Police Department. 

Louis began his law enforcement career as a police officer with the NYPD reaching the rank of Detective Criminal Investigator after serving as an undercover officer, infiltrating criminal networks selling illegal narcotics. During his time with the NYPD, he was assigned to a number of bureaus including Patrol, Housing, Detective, Internal Affairs, Organized Crime Control, Counterterrorism, and the Police Commissioner’s Office of Management Analysis & Planning.

Coupled with his extensive government operations experience, Louis Molina recognizes the sheer value of continued education and development. With that in mind, he completed courses in international politics at University of Cambridge, United Kingdom, and earned two masters’ degrees: one in Public Administration from Marist College School of Management (now Marist University); and the other in Human Rights Studies from Columbia University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. In 2014 he was admitted to the United States Department of Justice / Office of Justice Programs National Institute of Justice Scholars program for Law Enforcement, advancing the infusion of research and evidence into policing policy and practice. He successfully completed this three-year program in June 2017.  And in July 2020 he received a scholarship from Harvard Business School Fund for Leadership and Innovation to attend the Harvard Business School (HBS) General Management Program. Louis completed this prestigious management program in November 2020.    

This unrelenting dedication to progressive change has propelled Louis in his career. Thanks to his expertise, he played integral senior and executive roles in a number of organizations in the public sector, serving as a contract Senior Police Advisor and Instructor for the U.S. Department of State, Deputy Chief Investigator with the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office, Senior Advisor to the Commissioner of the NYC Department of Homeless Services, Chief Internal Monitor and Acting Assistant Commissioner for the NYC Department of Correction, First Deputy Chief of the Enforcement Division for the NYC Taxi & Limousine Commission, and served as First Deputy Commissioner for Westchester County Department of Correction.

After successfully leading Westchester County DOC out of United Sates Department of Justice federal oversight, Louis was credited with implementing significant reforms to the Westchester County jail and successfully obtained compliance with U.S. Department of Justice federal oversight agreement, leading to the successful conclusion with remedying constitutional violations at the county jail. Louis went on to serve as Chief of the Department of Public Safety for the City of Las Vegas, where he oversaw the city’s jail, deputy city marshal police force and animal protection services.

Louis returned to New York City to stop the collapse of the City’s jail system after eight years of mismanagement and under investment.  He went on to serve as the 37th Commissioner of the New York City Department of Correction, a role he was appointed to on January 1, 2022. Louis later stepped into the role of Assistant Deputy Mayor for Public Safety for the City of New York to help support the city’s entire public safety portfolio. 

Given his experience of serving in many large systems, Louis was asked and went on to serve as the 7th Commissioner of the City of New York Department of Citywide Administrative Services (DCAS).  DCAS is an agency committed to ensuring that city government works for all New Yorkers. This includes managing the City’s civil service system, reducing greenhouse gas emissions from city government operations, operationalizing fleet services to support all City agencies, overseeing the City’s real estate portfolio, and leveraging the City’s purchasing power to ensure that all agencies have the goods and services they need to deliver on their respective missions, and more.  While leading DCAS Louis developed and implemented a program that awards High School Equivalency combined with college credits for City staff who did not complete their High School Equivalency. He also began a demonstration pilot project for childcare for DCAS staff and pivoted the agency from being historically reactive to a proactive and operational agency that enhances support to all city agencies leading to one of the best fiscal year management reports in fiscal year 2025. His tenure also resulted in: historic growth in job applications via NYC Jobs website with an increase of 28% vs fiscal year 2024; 65.5% increase in career outreach events; installation of 90 EV chargers; doubling the award of contracts to underrepresented business enterprises; 47% increase in candidates participating in civil-service examinations; reducing 60,407 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions in fiscal year 2025, beating the reduction target by 21% and for the first time DCAS achieved and surpassed its emissions reduction target; installed 30% more solar capacity driven by an expansion of the largest collection of solar arrays installed atop 104 NYC public schools; and lastly increased the use of electric vehicles by 7.1% in fiscal year 2025.   

He is a veteran public safety and large County and City government operations leader with experience serving across multiple local government jurisdictions in the three main pillars of the criminal justice system: policing, district attorney’s office and corrections, in addition to other complex government operations.  Louis has been operationalizing sustainable criminal justice reform practices, enhancing government operations and advancing the principles of social justice.  Regardless of where his path leads him, Louis is certain of one thing: he wants to implement meaningful change where needed by introducing integral programs that aid and navigate vulnerable populations, thus breaking the cycle of poverty, crime, and abuse and solving systemic problems in overall government operations.

Louis Molina thoroughly believes that to improve the criminal justice system and enhance the impact of social services and overall government operations, these systems need strategic disruption in how they are managed to address today’s challenges. And he is excited to drive that change, because even the best County and City governments in America and the world over should always strive for excellence.