Commissioner – Missouri
Daniel Isom, Ph.D. serves as the Vice President of Corporate Safety, Security, and Crisis Management at Ameren. As a nationally recognized leader, he shares his extensive knowledge and experience in criminal justice and security issues to support the strategic efforts of the corporation.
With more than 35 years of law enforcement and criminal justice experience, Isom has served in numerous leadership positions throughout his career. He was appointed as the Interim Director of Public Safety for the City of St. Louis, Missouri, in 2021, a position he was previously appointed to for the State of Missouri following the unrest in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014. He also cochaired the working group on citizen-law enforcement relations as a member of the Ferguson Commission. As Interim St. Louis City Director of Public Safety, Isom had responsibility for oversight for the largest municipal government department in the city, including emergency management, corrections, fire services, violence prevention, and the police division.
Prior to serving in the Director of Public Safety positions, Isom had a distinguished career with the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department for 24 years, where he served in patrol, investigations, training, and internal affairs. His career with the department culminated in his appointment as Chief of Police in 2008, leading nearly 1,500 officers and more than 500 civilian employees in a position he held until his retirement in 2013.
Isom joined the faculty of University of Missouri–St. Louis (UMSL) in 2013 as an E. Desmond Lee Professor of Policing in the Criminology and Criminal Justice Department at UMSL. He also previously served as an adjunct professor at St. Louis Community College, Harris Stowe State University and Washington University-St. Louis.
Isom holds a bachelor’s degree, a master’s degree, and a doctorate degree from USML in criminology and criminal justice and a master’s degree in public administration from St. Louis University. He also is a graduate of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) National Academy, the Police Executive Research Forum Senior Management Institute, and the FBI National Executive Institute. Isom is a 2013 Eisenhower Fellow, studying community policing and police training in Europe while visiting Ireland and Germany and a 2016 University of Chicago Institute of Politics Fellow.
Isom is married to Virginia (Ginnie) Isom. He has a son and daughter, Daniel and Alexandria Isom.