Wayne Rogers

Board Member - Alabama

Wayne Rogers serves as Executive Assistant to Sheriff Mark Pettway, the Sheriff of Jefferson County, Alabama. In that capacity, he helped to start the CIT International training program for the Sheriff’s Office in 2019. That program has now expanded to include local police officers, social workers and educators from the Jefferson County Board of Education. In 2022, Sheriff Pettway was recognized as CIT International’s Law Enforcement Executive of the Year for the work done through this program. Mr. Rogers serves on the Executive Board of the Craig Crisis Care Center in Birmingham and teaches mental health law and procedure at the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office Academy. He also assists with overseeing mental and other healthcare of the almost 1,200 inmates in the two jails operated by the Sheriff’s Office.

Mr. Rogers has been a member of the Alabama Bar since 1988 and was a litigator for over 30 years prior to joining the Sheriff’s Office. He tried over 50 cases to verdict during that time and was Board-certified in Civil Trial Practice. He has appeared in court in 66 of Alabama’s 67 counties, in all three of Alabama’s federal district courts and in the 11^th Circuit Court of Appeals. Mr. Rogers started his legal career as a Law Clerk at the Alabama Court of Civil Appeals and thereafter served for almost seven (7) years as an Assistant United State Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama.

From 1995 to 2016, Mr. Rogers served as the Managing Counsel of Rogers & Associates, the Staff Counsel Office of Travelers Insurance Company for the State of Alabama. During this time, he managed a staff of up to seventeen employees, handling a majority of the Travelers litigation across the State. Following his retirement from Travelers, he was a partner in the law firm of DeGaris & Rogers, LLC until joining the Sheriff’s Office in 2019. Throughout his legal practice, he maintained a keen interest in mental health law and treatment due to an extensive history of mental health issues within his extended family.

Mr. Rogers has been married to Lauri Sitton Rogers for over 35 years and they have three grown children, two daughters-in-law and two grandchildren.