President & Director

About the Organization

The Vera Institute of Justice is powered by hundreds of advocates, researchers, and policy experts working to end mass incarceration, protect immigrants' rights, restore dignity to people behind bars, and build safe and thriving communities. Founded in 1961 to advocate for alternatives to money bail in New York City, Vera is a leading and non‑partisan national organization that partners with impacted communities and government leaders to advance evidence‑driven solutions that deliver safety, accountability and justice a Action, the Institute's 501(c)(4) sister organization founded in 2021, harnesses the power of advocacy, lobbying, and political strategy to achieve the same aims.

The next leader will guide Vera and Vera Action through the next phase of evolution, overseeing all aspects of both organizations, continuing to drive innovation and sustain impact. Leveraging Vera's unmatched track record of identifying, testing, and spreading evidence‑based solutions, they will continue to advance nationwide and place‑based efforts to end the overcriminalization and mass incarceration of people of color, people experiencing poverty, and immigrants.

Deploying Vera Action's advocacy acumen, political strategy and networks, they will amplify and scale solutions and work to mitigate the politics of crime and fear that stand in the way of good policy and practice. They will also serve as the primary external spokesperson, fundraiser, and advocate for both organizations and the millions of people impacted by the criminal justice and immigration systems.

• Strategic Leadership
  • Serve as the senior‑most executive tasked with achieving Vera and Vera Action's missions.
  • Oversee the implementation and refinement of programmatic work, including:
  • Pursuing a portfolio of initiatives that maximize the reach, depth, scalability, and durability of Vera's impact, focusing on work that represents the highest and best use of Vera's unique capabilities.
  • Continuing to evolve Vera's innovation, planning, and strategy development processes.
  • Building initiative strategies that deploy the right mix of research, technical assistance, communications and advocacy capacities to deliver maximum impact.
  • Ensuring high-performance and outcome-focused execution and adaptation of strategies through robust deployment of monitoring, evaluation and learning.
• With Vera Action's Director, set and build out the strategy for Vera Action, driving decision‑making related to lobbying, advocacy, and political initiatives in service of changing both narratives and policies around the criminal legal and immigration systems.
• Work closely with both organizations' boards to ensure strong governance, fostering a collaborative relationship to achieve each organization's current and future strategic objectives; provide all information necessary for the boards to function properly and to make informed decisions.
• Oversee and strengthen fundraising strategies and culture of philanthropy to support organizational sustainability and growth.
• Maintain thriving, equitable, and high‑performance organizations, ensuring commitment to core values, including racial equity, and strengthening accountability and a results orientation.
• Ensure that Vera and Vera Action take a thoughtful and strategic approach to risk mitigation, ensuring that necessary systems and processes are developed, refined, and followed.