Board of Directors

Steady Direction and Sound Strategy

With decades of combined business and leadership experience, CoreCivic’s Board of Directors guide and support the vision of our organization. They ensure accountability and instill governance. Together, the CoreCivic Board works with management to drive our leadership in making prudent, ethical decisions that benefit and protect all those we serve.

Mark A. Emkes, Chairman of the Board
Mark Emkes joined CoreCivic's Board of Directors in August 2014, and serves as the independent chairman of the Board. He also serves as a member of CoreCivic’s Compensation Committee and Nominating and Governance Committee and Chairman of the Executive Committee. From 2011 until 2013, Emkes served as the State of Tennessee’s Commissioner of Finance and Administration. For more than five years until his retirement in 2010, Emkes served as chief executive officer and chairman of the Board of Directors of Bridgestone Americas, Inc. and Bridgestone Americas Holdings, Inc., a tire and rubber manufacturing company. He also served as president of Bridgestone Americas, Inc. from January 2009 until his retirement. From 2004 until 2010, Emkes served as a director of Bridgestone Corporation located in Tokyo, Japan. Emkes serves as a director and chairman of the compensation committee of Greif, Inc., a publicly traded industrial packaging products and services company, and is a former director and chair of the audit committee of First Horizon National Corporation, a publicly traded regional financial institution. Emkes has served as president of the Middle Tennessee Council of the Boy Scouts of America, the Board of Directors of the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee and the Advisory Board of Habitat for Humanity, Nashville Chapter. Emkes was the 2011 recipient of the Jennings A. Jones Champion of Free Enterprise Award and was inducted into the Nashville Business Hall of Fame in 2012. Emkes holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from DePauw University and a master’s degree in business administration from the Thunderbird School of Global Management.

Donna M. Alvarado
Donna M. Alvarado was elected to the Company’s Board of Directors in December 2003 as an independent director. Ms. Alvarado is the founder and managing director of Aguila International. Aguila is an international business-consulting firm, specializing in human resources and leadership development, that provides a consortium for businesses and non-profit organizations seeking to collaborate in the western hemisphere. Ms. Alvarado has held senior management positions in government, in addition to her established career in the private business sector. She has served as deputy assistant secretary of defense, U.S. Department of Defense; counsel for the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary subcommittee on Immigration and Refugee Policy; and staff member of the U.S. House of Representatives Select Committee on Narcotics Abuse and Control. 

Ms. Alvarado also was appointed by President Reagan and confirmed by the U.S. Senate as director of ACTION, the federal domestic volunteer agency, where she directed the activities of nearly 500,000 Americans serving as volunteers, leading 500 employees and managing a $170 million budget. Ms. Alvarado currently serves as a Regent on the Ohio Board of Regents, serves as a member of the Governor’s Commission on Higher Education and the Economy, and Vice Chair of the Governor’s Workforce Policy Board in Ohio. Ms. Alvarado earned her postgraduate certificate in Financial Management from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, completed doctoral coursework on Latin American Literature from the University of Oklahoma, and earned both bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Spanish from Ohio State University.

Robert J. Dennis
Robert Dennis joined CoreCivic's Board of Directors in February 2013, and serves as chair of CoreCivic's Compensation Committee. Dennis served as the executive chairman of the Board of Directors of Genesco Inc., a publicly traded retailer of footwear, apparel and accessories, from February 2020 to June 2020. Previously, he served as Genesco’s president and chief executive officer from 2008 until 2020, and as chairman from 2010 to 2020. Prior to joining Genesco, Dennis held senior management positions with Hat World Corporation and Asbury Automotive, and was a partner and leader of the North American Retail Practice with McKinsey & Company. Dennis serves as a director and member of the Governance Committee, the Finance and Investments Committee, and as the chair of the Compensation Committee at HCA Holdings Inc., a publicly traded health care services company. He serves on the Board of Trustees at the United Way of Metropolitan Nashville, the Board of Leadership Nashville, and the Board of Nashville Chamber of Commerce. Dennis holds both bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and a master’s degree in business administration, with distinction, from the Harvard Business School.

Damon T. Hininger
Damon Hininger has served as a director since August 2009. Hininger was named President and Chief Executive Officer in August 2009, having previously been appointed as President and Chief Operating Officer in July 2008. Damon served as Senior Vice President of Federal and Local Customer Relations since September 2007 after having served as Vice President of Federal and Local Customer Relations since June 2002. Hininger previously served CoreCivic as Vice President, Business Analysis since December 2000. He has also served the company as Director, Strategic Planning and Director Proposal Development.

Hininger joined the company in 1992 as a correctional officer at Leavenworth Detention Center in Leavenworth, Kansas, and was promoted to Training Manager at Central Arizona Detention Center in 1994. That same year, Hininger was also selected as both Central Arizona Detention Center's and CoreCivic 's company-wide Employee of the Year. He joined the corporate office in 1995, serving as Manager, Facility Start Up for three years. Hininger earned a bachelor of science degree from Kansas State University and a master's in business administration from the Jack Massey Graduate School of Business at Belmont University in Nashville. 

Stacia Hylton
Stacia Hylton joined CoreCivic's Board of Directors in August 2016, and is a member of CoreCivic's Nominating and Governance Committee and Chair of Special Litigation Committee. Hylton also serves as a member of CoreCivic's Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee. Since 2016, Hylton has served as a principal for LS Advisory, a New Jersey-based business solutions advisory consultancy. In 2010, U.S. President Barack Obama nominated Hylton to serve as Director of the U.S. Marshals Service (USMS), a federal agency with more than 5,600 employees responsible for federal judiciary security, fugitive operations, asset forfeitures, prisoner operations, transportation and witness security, and served as director of the USMS until her retirement in 2015. She served as the U.S. Attorney General’s Federal Detention Trustee in the U.S. Department of Justice from 2004 to 2010. From 1980 to 2004, Hylton served in progressively senior leadership positions within the USMS. She serves as a director and member of the audit committee of Spok Holdings, Inc., a publicly traded provider of communications solutions. She also serves on the Board of Directors at LexisNexis Special Services Inc., a software solutions company for government agencies. Hylton is a fellow for the National Academy for Public Administration and has served on the Board of Directors of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and Law Enforcement Exploring. She has served on the Executive Committee for the International Chiefs of Police and the Accreditation and Policy Committees for the National Sheriffs Association. Hylton holds a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from Northeastern University.

Harley G. Lappin
Harley Lappin joined CoreCivic's Board of Directors in January 2018, and has also been employed at CoreCivic as a special operations advisor to the leadership since January 2018. Lappin served as CoreCivic's executive vice president and chief corrections officer from 2011 until his retirement from such position on January 1, 2018. Prior to joining CoreCivic in 2011, Lappin served from 2003 to 2011 as director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP). As director of the BOP, Lappin had oversight and management responsibility for 116 federal prisons, 14 private contract facilities and more than 250 contracts for community corrections facilities, in total managing more than 38,000 employees. Lappin has received numerous awards throughout his career, including the Associate Warden of the Year award for the BOP’s South Central Region (1992); the BOP’s Excellence in Prison Management Award (2000); the Attorney General’s Award for Excellence in Management (2001); and the Presidential Rank Award of Meritorious Executive (2004). In 2010, he received the American Correctional Association’s (ACA) E.R. Cass Award for Correctional Achievement, the highest honor bestowed by that organization. In 2015, Lappin received the Louie L. Wainwright Award from the Association of State Correctional Administrators (ASCA). Lappin has served as chair of the Standards Committee of the ACA, is a former board member of both the National Institute of Corrections and the Federal Prison Industry Board, and a former chair of the Prison Industry Committee of ASCA. Lappin holds a bachelor’s degree from Indiana University and a master’s degree in criminal justice from Kent State University.

Anne L. Mariucci
Anne L. Mariucci joined the Board of Directors in 2011. Mariucci spent the majority of her career in the large-scale community development and home building business. She was employed by Del Webb Corporation from 1984-2003 and served in a variety of senior management capacities, including serving as President following its merger with Pulte Homes Inc., which created the nation's largest homebuilding company. Since 2003, Mariucci has been affiliated with the private equity firms Hawkeye Partners (Austin, Texas), Inlign Capital Partners (Phoenix, Arizona), and Glencoe Capital (Chicago, Illinois). Mariucci received her undergraduate degree in accounting and finance from the University of Arizona and completed the corporate finance program at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business. She presently serves on the Arizona Board of Regents, and is its immediate past-chairman. She also serves as a director of Southwest Gas Company, Scottsdale Healthcare, Arizona State University Foundation, and the Fresh Start Women's Foundation. She is a past director of the Arizona State Retirement System and Action Performance Companies, as well as a past Trustee of the Urban Land Institute. 

Thurgood Marshall, Jr.
Thurgood Marshall Jr. joined CoreCivic's Board of Directors in December 2002, and serves as chair of CoreCivic's Risk Committee and as a member of Nominating and Governance Committee. Marshall also serves as a member of CoreCivic's Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee. Marshall served as a member of CoreCivic's Special Litigation Committee until July 30, 2020. Until his retirement in 2019, he served as a partner in the Washington D.C. office of the law firm of Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP, and a principal in the firm’s Morgan Lewis Consulting Group LLC, which assists business clients with communications, political and legal strategies. Marshall has held appointments in all three branches of the federal government. Prior to joining a predecessor of Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP in 2001, he served as assistant to the President and Cabinet Secretary from 1997 to 2001. Marshall has served as director of Legislative Affairs and deputy counsel to the Vice President and as counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee, the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation and the Senate Government Affairs Committee. In 2006, he was confirmed by the United States Senate to serve on the Board of Governors of the United States Postal Service and served as Chairman prior to completing his service in 2013. Marshall serves as a director of Genesco Inc., a publicly traded retailer of footwear, apparel and accessories. He also serves on the board of En+ Group, a publicly traded multi-national corporation producing low-carbon aluminum and hydropower, and the board of DRB Financial, a privately held financial services firm. He is a former member of the Board of Trustees of the Ford Foundation and the Ethics and Compliance Certification Institute. Marshall serves as a trustee on four non-profit boards: The Third Way, Campaign Legal Center, President Lincoln’s Cottage and the DC Grays. Marshall holds a bachelor’s degree and a juris doctor from the University of Virginia.

Devin I. Murphy
Devin Murphy joined CoreCivic's Board of Directors in November 2018 and serves on CoreCivic's Audit and Risk Committees. He also serves on CoreCivic's Special Litigation Committee. Since March 2019, Murphy has served as president of Phillips Edison and Company, Inc., a non-traded internally managed public REIT that is one of the nation’s largest owners and operators of grocery-anchored shopping centers. Murphy served as Phillips Edison and Company, Inc.’s chief financial officer from 2013 until he was named president in March 2019. Before joining Phillips Edison and Company, Inc. in 2013, Murphy worked for 27 years as an investment banker and held senior leadership roles at Morgan Stanley and Deutsche Bank. Murphy was the Global Head of Real Estate Investment Banking at Deutsche Bank, where his team executed over 500 transactions representing total transaction volume in excess of $400 billion, including initial public offerings, mergers and acquisitions, common stock offerings and secured and unsecured debt offerings. Murphy began his banking career at Morgan Stanley in 1986, and held a number of senior positions at Morgan Stanley including vice chairman, co-head of U.S. Real Estate Investment Banking and head of Real Estate Private Capital Markets. He also served on the Investment Committee of the Morgan Stanley Real Estate Funds, a series of global private real estate funds with over $35 billion in assets under management. During his 20 years with Morgan Stanley, Murphy and his teams executed numerous capital markets and merger and acquisition transactions. Murphy is a director of Apartment Income REIT Corporation (AIRC), a NYSE listed apartment REIT, and serves on the Audit, Compensation, and Nominating Committees of AIRC. Murphy is an advisory director of Hawkeye Partners, a real estate private equity firm headquartered in Austin, Texas, and of Trigate Capital, a real estate private equity firm headquartered in Dallas, Texas. Murphy holds a bachelor's degree in English and history with honors from the College of William and Mary and a master's degree in business administration from the University of Michigan.

John R. Prann, Jr.
John Prann, Jr. has served as a director since December 2001. Prann served from 1993 to 2001 as president and CEO of Katy Industries, Inc., a publicly-traded manufacturer and distributor of consumer electric corded products and maintenance cleaning products. From 1991 to 1995, he was president and CEO of CRL, Inc., an equity and real estate development company, which held a 25% interest in Katy. A former partner with the accounting firm of Deloitte & Touche, Mr. Prann serves on the boards of several institutions including Dynojet Research, Inc., Student Leadership Institute and Cardinal Cushing School and is an advocate of education and youth issues. A 1974 graduate of the University of California, Riverside, Prann obtained his master's in business administration from the University of Chicago in 1979.