Hutchens, a Bargersville resident comes to IDHS from the Indiana Criminal Justice Institute, where he was chief deputy. He is an attorney with significant public policy experience.

As director of planning, Hutchens will oversee comprehensive planning assessment; assist in the development of a single, statewide strategic, operational and tactical plan; assist local entities through planning and grants assistance; and provide support for other divisions internal and external to the agency with incident and event specific planning requests.

Hutchens is an associate fellow with the Sagamore Institute for Policy Research in Indianapolis and an adjunct instructor for the School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis. Previous experience includes chief administrator of special projects at the Marion County Justice Agency and coordinator of the Indianapolis Violence Reduction Partnership; and research fellow at the Hudson Institute in Indianapolis where he also was a liaison with the Indianapolis Mayor’s Office.

He also is a member of the board of directors for the Justice Information Sharing Practitioners (JISP), which conducts work nationally on information sharing for law enforcement and homeland security efforts.

He received his doctor of jurisprudence from Indiana University School of Law in Indianapolis in May 2001 and his bachelor’s degree in public affairs from Indiana University in 1998. He is a native of Greenwood and graduated from Center Grove High School.