Sheriff Bob Jonsen has been in law enforcement since 1986. Prior to his elected appointment as the Sheriff of Santa Clara County in December 2022, Bob was Chief for the Palo Alto Police Department from January 2018. Prior to that, he was the Chief of Police for the City of Menlo Park. His law enforcement career began in Los Angeles where he was a member of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department for 27 years. As a police executive, Sheriff Jonsen believes it’s essential to support the physical, mental, and emotional health of those serving our communities. As Chief, Jonsen was instrumental in bringing mindfulness training to the Menlo Park Police Department, where every employee received Resilience Immersion Training.

In 2018, he became a certified instructor of Compassion Cultivation Training (CCT), as well as a Peer Coach for the Resilience Immersion Training. He has facilitated CCT to both police and fire personnel and witnessed the profound impact it has had for participants, both professionally and personally. Sheriff Jonsen’s law enforcement experience provides unique insight to the stressors public safety personnel encounter throughout their career and adds value to the classes he teaches. Since 2018, he has also been Principal Instructor for the Courageous Heart program at Compassion Institute.