Gabriella Priest is Program Director of Harvard Kennedy School’s Program in Criminal Justice Policy and Management (PCJ). For almost two decades, Priest has worked tirelessly to improve the penal system, partnering with practitioners, academics, policymakers, and impacted individuals and their families in research and evidenced-based practices to develop holistic approaches to penal system reform.
Before joining the PCJ as Program Director, Priest worked for 11 years at the nonprofit Community Resources for Justice (CRJ). As CRJ’s Director of Innovation, Implementation, and Development, she oversaw its Massachusetts community-based reentry programs and its Social Justice Services training academy. Through CRJ’s Social Justice Services (SJS) division, Priest’s team led an effort to secure state funding for community-based reentry programs, and Priest was responsible for oversight of four of those programs designed to facilitate re-entry for returning citizens. In addition, through CRJ's Crime and Justice Institute (CJI) division, Priest led juvenile and adult penal policy reform and implementation efforts in several states – Georgia, Utah, Kansas, Oregon, West Virginia, and Kentucky. Priest’s background also includes work on the Justice Reinvestment Initiative, which accomplished statewide penal system policy reform in several states. These reforms improved outcomes, reduced prison and juvenile penal populations, and averted over $700 million in projected state costs.
In addition to her efforts to advance equity and social justice across the country, Priest, who holds a Bachelor of Science in Sociology and Criminology and a Master of Science in Criminal Justice from Suffolk University, is the At-Large Vice President of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion for the International Community Corrections Association (ICCA) Board of Directors, serves as President of the Suffolk University College of Arts and Sciences Alumni Board of Directors, and is an adjunct faculty member at Suffolk University, where she teaches Sociology undergraduate courses and graduate courses on criminal justice. In 2019, Priest received the Inaugural “Emerging Leader” award from ICCA in 2019.
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