FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 23, 2024
Contact: Michael Czaczkes, mczaczkes@vera.org

NEW YORK – Today, the Vera Institute of Justice announced the election of a new chair to its board of trustees and the appointment of three new members to the board, all of whom bring invaluable experience, leadership, and a deep commitment to ending the overcriminalization and mass incarceration of people of color, immigrants, and people experiencing poverty.

The new trustees are James Forman Jr., Desiré Vincent Levy, and Mindy Tarlow. Current trustee Khalil Gibran Muhammad has been elected board chair. Outgoing board chair Damien Dwin will remain a trustee.

“I am excited to welcome Desiré, Mindy, and James to the Vera board and to have Khalil serve as chair at this critical time in the fight for criminal justice reform,” said Nicholas Turner, president and director of the Vera Institute of Justice. “Desiré, Mindy, and James will join Khalil as incredible resources in helping Vera drive change—building community-centered solutions to public safety, opening doors for formerly incarcerated people to access housing, supporting legal representation programs for individuals facing deportation, and so much more. I also want to thank Damien for his service as chair. Damien has brought a critical business perspective and pace, as well as his personal passion, to the table. He understands that beyond the data and numbers, real lives depend on the justice reform work Vera is doing.”

“It is an honor to be elected chair and pick up the work of Damien, who, as chair, oversaw the next phase of Vera’s strategic plan,” said incoming Board Chair Khalil Gibran Muhammad. “Damien has been a critical partner in successfully ending the ban on Pell grants for people in prison and securing federal funding for Vera to lead a multi-state effort to create and sustain safe and humane environments for people who work, visit, and are incarcerated in prisons. I also want to welcome Desiré, Mindy, and James to the board. They bring decades of experience in public policy, law, government, and advancing equity and social justice. I am confident they will enhance Vera’s ability to ensure that money does not determine freedom; that fewer people are in jails, prisons, and immigration detention; and that everyone in the criminal justice system is treated with dignity.”

“It has been an honor to serve as chair of the board and have the opportunity to work with experts, advocates, and policymakers to end mass incarceration, which is a movement that Vera has been on the frontlines of since the organization was founded in 1961,” said outgoing board chair Damien Dwin. “I also joined the Vera board because this work is personal to me. As a child growing up in Washington D.C., I know firsthand how Vera’s work directly impacts our most vulnerable communities and gives a voice to the voiceless. Today, as an investor focused on financing small businesses in working-class places, I know how critical it is for the business community to partner with organizations like Vera ensuring that individuals with conviction histories can enter the workforce and thrive. I remain deeply grateful to Darren Walker [current president of the Ford Foundation] for introducing me to Nick Turner and Vera.”

James Forman Jr. is the J. Skelly Wright Professor of Law at Yale Law School. After attending Brown University and Yale Law School, he joined the Public Defender Service in Washington, DC, where he represented both juveniles and adults charged with crimes for six years. In 1997, along with David Domenici, he started the Maya Angelou School, an alternative school for youth who had left education or been arrested. Forman’s first book, Locking Up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America, was on the New York Times’ 10 Best Books of 2017 and was awarded the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction.

Desiré Vincent Levy is a communications strategist and impact producer specializing in advocacy campaigns and impact litigation. She is the executive producer of the James Beard Award-winning film Coldwater Kitchen and an alumna of the Vera Institute of Justice, the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law, and the ACLU of Michigan.

Mindy Tarlow is a senior fellow at New York University’s Marron Institute of Urban Management, where she supports scalable, sustainable solutions to problems facing the public and social sectors. Tarlow was previously a managing director at Blue Meridian Partners, where she launched and oversaw the Justice and Mobility Fund. Previously, she spent close to two decades as the founding executive director and chief executive officer of the Center for Employment Opportunities, a Vera Institute spin-off, and subsequently led the New York City Mayor’s Office of Operations.

Khalil Gibran Muhammad is the Ford Foundation Professor of History, Race and Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School and the Suzanne Young Murray Professor at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies. He is the former director of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, a division of the New York Public Library and the world’s leading library and archive of global black history. His scholarship and teaching examine the broad intersections of race, democracy, inequality, and criminal justice in modern United States history. He also serves on the boards of the Museum of Modern Art and Cure Violence.

Damien Dwin is the founder and chief executive officer of Lafayette Square, an impact investment platform working with local partners to create an inclusive U.S. economy. Lafayette operates with for-profit investment strategies that pair capital with services to confront critical societal challenges in housing, jobs, renewables, and financial inclusion. He also serves on the boards of Lincoln Center, the National Museum of African American History & Culture, the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, the Studio Museum in Harlem, the Boys’ Club of New York, and the Woodberry Forest School in Virginia.

Full biographies for each member of Vera’s Board of Trustees can be found on Vera’s website.

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About Vera Institute of Justice:

The Vera Institute of Justice is powered by hundreds of advocates, researchers, and policy experts working to transform the criminal legal and immigration systems until they’re fair for all. Founded in 1961 to advocate for alternatives to money bail in New York City, Vera is now a national organization that partners with impacted communities and government leaders for change. We develop just, antiracist solutions so that money doesn’t determine freedom; fewer people are in jails, prisons, and immigration detention; and everyone is treated with dignity. Vera’s headquarters is in Brooklyn, New York, with offices in Washington, DC, New Orleans, and Los Angeles. For more information, visit vera.org.