Michael Jacobson announced yesterday that he is stepping down as president and director of the Vera Institute of Justice after eight years at its helm. While he will be missed, he leaves Vera in great shape, having significantly strengthened its fiscal and organizational capacities and expanded its reach and impact. Vera’s budget increased three-fold under his tenure, and Vera opened new offices in Washington, DC, New Orleans, and Los Angeles, working in 45 states in all as well as internationally in Africa, China, and elsewhere.

“I am pleased to hand over the leadership of Vera at such a high point in its 51-year history,” Jacobson told the Board of Trustees and staff. He leaves to leaves to create and head a new public and fiscal policy institute for state and local governments at the City University of New York, where he will also be a professor in the sociology department of the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. “I look forward to the task of starting a new institute and tackling new challenges—and will draw on the Vera model of using quality research, technical assistance, and demonstration projects to help government partners find solutions to pressing problems in times of great fiscal constraints,” he said. “Of course, this news is bittersweet as I will miss my colleagues, for whom I have enormous respect.

John F. Savarese, Vera's chairman of the Board of Trustees, expressed what most of us here at Vera are thinking and feeling when he said, "Long after Michael has embarked upon this exciting new chapter in his life, we will continue to benefit from the innovation, vision, and energy he provided for nearly a decade.”

Read the press release 

Learn more about Michael Jacobson