BOSTON -- The National Preparedness Leadership Institute at Harvard University has named Col. Kerry Gilpin, superintendent of the Massachusetts State Police, as its leader of the year.

Gilpin, of Hampden, was appointed to command the State Police in November 2017 amid a scandal over an arrest report that was altered for a judge's daughter which lead to the resignation of Commander Col. Richard McKeon.

Less than four months later, police announced the results of an investigation into an overtime scandal involving as many as 40 troopers and officers who falsified records to get paid for overtime they did not work. So far nine people have been charged and five entered into plea agreements.

“Colonel Gilpin continues to provide steadfast leadership for the Massachusetts State Police, guiding the agency through its investigations and its operations,” said Leonard Marcus, an Institute director.

Under Gilpin’s leadership, the State Police began installing GPS systems in cruisers, a program which is ongoing. In 2019, some troopers will begin wearing body cameras in a pilot program. Both initiatives are to increase officer safety and accountability, said David Procopio, State Police spokesman.

Gilpin also increased staffing in the Department’s Staff Inspections Section and Internal Affairs Section, instituted quarterly audits of top earners, and is guiding the Department through an outside audit by a private consultancy firm and a staffing study being conducted by the Edward J. Collins Jr. Center for Public Management at the University of Massachusetts-Boston, he said.

The Department also continues to audit discretionary overtime worked by personnel and to refer any discrepancies found to federal and state prosecutors under her oversite, he said.

Overseeing investigations in the department is not the only reason Gilpin has been recognized. While at the Institute in 2016-17, Colonel Gilpin was part of a project that devised a blueprint on policies, procedures and funding to equip every first-responder agency in the nation with naloxone, a drug that reverses opioid overdoes. A program to do so was tested by the Jackson, Mississippi, Police Department, which now has all first responders carry the overdose drug, he said.

“I am truly humbled by, and grateful for, this distinction,” Gilpin said in writing. “The Massachusetts State Police have made a great deal of progress toward achieving the vision we set forth a year ago. I look forward to leading the department, with the assistance of my command staff and the support of the many outstanding personnel who truly define the MSP, as we continue to improve our systems and operations and restore the trust of the citizens we serve.”

Every year the Institute, a joint program of Harvard University’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government’s Center for Public Leadership, honors a program alumnus as its Meta-Leader of the year. Gilpin completed the Institute’s Executive Education Program in 2016-2017, while she served as deputy commander of the State Police Division of Standards and Training.

Other winners include Jono Anzalone, vice president for international services for the American Red Cross; Alice Hill, special assistant to the president and senior director for resilience policy for the National Security Council during the Obama Administration and Dr. Martin Cetron, M.D., director of the Division of Global Migration and Quarantine at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.