Strategy Director of Crime & Crisis

Who We Are

The Council of State Governments Justice Center helps leaders in every state design and implement solutions for complex justice system challenges and make communities safer and healthier. We deliver trusted data, practical strategies, and cross-systems collaboration to create second chances, reduce harm, and transform lives.

The Council of State Governments Justice Center helps leaders in every state design and implement solutions for complex justice system challenges and make communities safer and healthier. We deliver trusted data, practical strategies, and cross-systems collaboration to create second chances, reduce harm, and transform lives.

• Using data to drive action
• Strengthening crisis response and addressing violent crime
• Turning billions in new behavioral health resources into improved outcomes
• Growing the number of states committed to delivering reentry success by 2030.

We have approximately 50 employees in states across the country who have decades of experience working in and with criminal, juvenile, and Tribal justice agencies. We have provided housing, mental health, and addiction services; served as educators and in workforce development agencies; and supported victims and survivors of crime. We have served governors, state legislators, and members of Congress on both sides of the political spectrum.

What binds us together is a shared commitment to our mission; to one another; to a common set of values; and to the national, bipartisan advisory board that guides our work.

Learn more about careers at the CSG Justice Center.

NYC metro area preferred (hybrid); remote candidates will also be considered.

The strategy director, crime & crisis is responsible for building and advancing one of the Justice Center's newest strategic priorities: helping state and local leaders solve more violent crime, strengthen public safety, improve crisis response, and prevent violence. Communities across the country face increasingly complex public safety challenges that demand coordinated, evidence-informed solutions. This position has the opportunity to shape how jurisdictions respond by developing practical approaches that improve violent crime solve rates, strengthen front-end justice system responses, connect people in crisis to effective care, and improve public safety outcomes.

The Justice Center is uniquely positioned to lead this work. Drawing on expertise across law enforcement, behavioral health, courts, corrections, victim services, and data and research, we are building a national strategy that connects these systems in ways few organizations can. The Strategy Director will be building a new vision from two existing bodies of work:
The Justice Center has played a central role in advancing innovative approaches to crisis response through its national Expanding First Response Commission work and toolkit, as well as work with federal and state stakeholders on behavioral health crisis response and 988. At the same time, the Justice Center has built a unique 50 state data repository focused on the challenge states face in solving most violent crime and is convening stakeholders to build consensus and momentum within states to improve accountability, fairness, and justice.

The Strategy Director develops the organization's long-term Crime & Crisis strategy, identifies emerging opportunities, builds partnerships, and oversees a portfolio of projects and investments around the strategy. As a member of the Senior Leadership Team, the Director brings both a strategy and organization-wide perspective to decision-making about priorities, resources, and growth, ensuring the strategic priority contributes to and…