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Before taking the bench, Judge Pinski taught at the University of Minnesota Law School and practiced law in Minnesota and Montana. As a district judge, he sat by designation on the Montana Supreme Court and served on the Montana Drug Treatment Court Advisory Committee. Judge Pinski is an elected member of the American Law Institute and Uniform Law Commission.

Judge Pinski founded a veterans treatment court and presided over a drug treatment court for eight years. He is a frequent author and commentator on treatment courts, and he worked closely with the Harvard Law School Access to Justice Lab to design a comparative study on treatment court processes. As a member of the National Judicial Opioid Task Force, he authored federal, state, and tribal jurisdictional transfer agreements to expand access to treatment courts. Judge Pinski also drafted the Model Veterans Treatment Court Act for the Uniform Law Commission.

In the private sector, Judge Pinski is the president of Treatment Court Consulting Group, LLC, providing evaluation, research, training, and technical assistance services to the National Association of Drug Court Professionals, National Drug Court Institute, Justice for Vets, Tribal Law and Policy Institute, and treatment courts across the United States.

She has an extensive background in grant writing and award management. Her previous work includes serving State and Superior courts as a misdemeanor and felony Probation Officer, serving as the Specialized Probation Supervisor, Director of Midtown Recovery Center (IOP), and Project Director over several SAMHSA-funded grant programs. She is a Certified Accountability Court Coordinator in the state of Georgia through the Carl Vinson Institute of Government at the University of Georgia. Dayna received her undergraduate degree from Georgia Southern University, a certificate in Addictions Counseling from Darton College, and holds a Masters of Public Administration from Columbus State University. She is a proud blue line wife and mother.

In her prior role as Case Manager, she worked hands-on with participants suffering from severe addiction and administered cognitive behavioral courses in conjunction with their GPS, drug, or alcohol monitoring needs. Once promoted to Court Liaison, Tawny’s industry experience from interacting with and monitoring 2,500+ clients provided the foundation to successfully work in the courts. She has been called to testify in over 50+ evidentiary hearings and speaks to the court daily regarding the status and progress of participants in their program. In recent years, she has provided continuing education and conducted internal and external training to colleagues and peers in the criminal justice system.

Tawny completed the Robert F. Borkenstein Courses for Alcohol and Highway Safety and the Effects of Drugs on Human Performance and Behavior. In addition, she received specialized training to establish best practices standards and protocols for the following programs: Continuous Alcohol Monitoring, Sweat Drug Patch monitoring, Remote Breath, and GPS monitoring.

In 2008, Judge Bland was appointed as a Kansas City Municipal Court Judge for Division 205 and began his research to develop a Veterans Treatment Court. In 2012, he founded a truancy court, and in 2015, he was appointed as the Kansas City, Missouri Municipal Mental Health Court Judge.

He is the Presiding Judge of the Kansas City, Missouri Municipal Court, serves as the President of the Missouri Municipal Court, and is the VP of the Associate Circuit Judge’s Association. He was appointed by the Supreme Court of Missouri to serve on the Municipal Judges Education Committee, where his focus has been Judicial Ethics and Administration. In June 2016, he was appointed by Missouri Supreme Court Chief Justice to serve on the Committee for Practice and Procedure in Municipal Division Cases which developed the Operating Standards that all municipal judges must perform across the state of Missouri.