When Trevor Shinn enrolled in the Master of Public Administration program at the University of Miami College of Arts and Sciences, he already had decades of work experience.
Shinn had spent 28 years in the North Miami Police Department, rising to the rank of major, and was serving as a police lieutenant in the University of Miami Police Department (UMPD).
But there was still more he wanted to learn.
“I wanted to broaden my knowledge with strategic thinking,” he said, “and serve as an example, not only for my children and my grandchildren, but also for the men and women who work here.”
Shinn wasn’t the only student in the program who brought years of experience to classroom discussions. The program included other professionals with public service experience, along with younger students just starting their careers.
“One of the things I really enjoyed about the program was the shared learning experience,” Shinn said. “You have an opportunity to learn from each other because it’s a lot of collaboration through the different courses and the different projects.”
Now, as chief of UMPD, Shinn often uses what he learned in the M.P.A. program. He found a course called “Public Program Evaluation” taught by Cali Curley, the program director and a faculty member in the Department of Political Science, particularly useful.
“There are so many tools that she gave us that you can apply day to day, and I really have,” he said. “One of the things that I took away from her class is the importance of positive relationships with your stakeholders.”
Building positive relationships has been a core tenet of Shinn’s career.
He grew up in the city of North Miami, where he played high school football on a team coached by Larry Ball, a former Miami Dolphins linebacker. Shinn initially planned to become a teacher, but while coaching football as a young adult, he got to know some of the athletes’ parents who were police officers in North Miami. They encouraged him to join the force.
“I loved it from the start,” he recalled. “It was exciting as a young officer out there catching people who’ve done harm to others.”
As he rose through the ranks, Shinn found opportunities to help shape the police department and mentor younger officers. He helped create an officer wellness program, a mentorship program, and a career development plan. He also continued to coach football and asked his network of high school coaches to recommend student athletes who they thought would make good police officers. He even recruited six former players he had coached at Barbara Goleman Senior High School to the North Miami Police Department.
Along the way, Shinn earned his bachelor’s degree in public administration and attended the FBI National Academy, a prestigious leadership training program for law enforcement managers.
In 2015, when he was eligible to retire from the North Miami Police Department, Shinn started to look for other opportunities. He saw a job posting for a police lieutenant at UMPD and thought it sounded like a great fit.
“I always wanted to work in an education environment,” he said.
After joining UMPD, Shinn enrolled in the M.P.A. program and took one course each semester. He graduated in May of 2025, around the time former Chief David A. Rivero retired and Shinn was named as his replacement.
As police chief, Shinn’s priorities include keeping the University’s campus safe and investing in his team. He also wants to maintain the police department’s positive relationships with students, faculty, and staff.
Shinn said he’s conscious of the fact that while UMPD is well regarded, some students arrive on campus having had negative experiences with the police departments in their hometowns.
“We can’t assume, just because we’re here on a college campus, and we feel we have a pretty good reputation,” that every student will view UMPD positively, he explained. “There are students coming from all over.”
To address this challenge, Shinn has launched a community relations program called Beyond the Badge. The program centers on an interactive video like the ones used to train police officers, giving members of the University community the opportunity to explore different scenarios from a law enforcement perspective.
“We wanted to be very deliberate about giving people an opportunity to get to know us,” he said.
As Shinn leads UMPD, he often refers to what he learned in the M.P.A. program. In fact, he has created what he calls “a little cheat sheet” with reminders of some of the things he learned in the program that have stuck with him. The “cheat sheet” is posted on the side of one of the bookshelves in his office, facing his desk, so he can see it while he works.
“All these things were notes that I took from either a PowerPoint or a quote that a professor said,” he explained. “I have it there as a little reminder to myself.”
