Elizabeth
Powers
Program Officer, Criminal Justice Grantmaking
US
- Criminal Justice
US
- Criminal Justice
Elizabeth is a Program Officer on the Criminal Justice Grantmaking team at Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Philanthropies. Elizabeth leads a sub-portfolio focused on achieving community centered health and safety without relying on the criminal legal system by supporting nonpunitive community violence interventions, efforts to repair harm to those impacted by violence, and alternatives to law enforcement based crisis response.
Before coming to Schusterman, Elizabeth served as the Associate Director of Place-Based Advising at the Columbia University Justice Lab, where they co-led a team that advised government leaders and community-based partners on strategies to end youth incarceration and invest in community solutions. Prior to the Justice Lab, Elizabeth was the Director of State Campaigns at the Innocence Project where they led legislative campaigns in multiple states to prevent and reveal wrongful convictions and compensate wrongfully convicted people. Their earlier work included serving as the Director of Youth Justice at the Children’s Defense Fund – New York where they co-led the Raise the Age campaign which successfully advocated for an increase in the age of adult prosecution for youth in New York. Elizabeth’s other work has included working with young people in New York City’s Family Court at The Legal Aid Society and serving as an adjunct professor for graduate courses at Fordham University and John Jay College of Criminal Justice.
Elizabeth is a licensed social worker and holds a Master of Social Work degree from Fordham University and a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Webster University.