Former prosecutor brings history and passion to transformative vision for justice
Equal Justice USA announced today that Jamila Hodge will be the organization’s next executive director, and just the second in its history. She will step into the role in September 2021 as the nation continues to reckon with the damage done by a system overrun with injustice. In this same moment, EJUSA’s vision for a new system built on healing, race equity, and accountability that repairs is gaining traction across the country.
“The past 15 months have amplified how desperately this nation needs EJUSA’s vision for a transformed justice system, and Jami is without question the right leader to advance the work that will drive that vision,” said Jesselyn McCurdy, chair of EJUSA’s board. “Her experience — at the Vera Institute of Justice and in her many prominent government roles — will be invaluable as EJUSA continues to grow and change the way the country approaches justice.”
Hodge has worked in and around the justice system for more than 15 years. Most recently, she was the founding director of Vera’s Reshaping Prosecution Program. She helped launch the program in 2018 and built a 17-member team that works with progressive prosecutors, community-based organizations, and people impacted by the system to develop policy and practice reforms to end mass incarceration and reduce racial disparities within the system. One of the signature initiatives she launched is Motion for Justice, which centers racial equity in transforming the role of the prosecutor and aims to implement concrete racial equity strategies in partnership with community-based organizations.
In addition, Hodge has served as an expert on panels addressing reform around racial justice, prosecution, cash bail, decarceration, and the criminalization of poverty. She has appeared on CBS, MSNBC, ABC Nightline, and many other media outlets.
“As a former prosecutor and White House advisor, I know how difficult change from within can be,” said Hodge. “Work to reform the system must continue, especially in this moment of history. But over the past year so many Americans have come to understand, as I have, that patching up a system rooted in racial oppression isn’t enough. We need to build solutions to violence that heal trauma and repair the harm that violence does to families and communities to make us all safer. EJUSA is the right organization, doing the right work, at the right time. I am thrilled to join this team.”
Hodge succeeds Shari Silberstein, who steps down after 21 years — and 13 years after launching EJUSA as an independent organization. She was central in ending the death penalty in the first several states to do so, sparking a national wave of death penalty repeal that has continued with EJUSA leadership. Through that work, Silberstein collaborated with hundreds of survivors of violence, particularly Black and Brown survivors, and she developed a new, survivor-centered vision for justice that became the foundation for EJUSA’s work. She recently announced her decision to step down after acknowledging the need to create space for leadership that represents the most impacted communities.
“It has been the honor of my life to build this organization and contribute to this movement, and I can’t think of a better person than Jami to take the reins and bring this work to the next level,” said Silberstein. “Our nation is craving solutions to violence that create safe, thriving communities for everyone. Under Jami’s leadership I know EJUSA will meet the urgent need head on. Her vision aligns deeply with EJUSA’s values. I can’t wait to see this organization soar.”
Hodge spent four of her 12 years in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia as a Community Prosecutor, where her role included acting as a legal advisor to law enforcement and training community members on legal issues, including crime prevention. She received numerous awards, including the U.S. Attorney Award for Community Outreach, in 2014.
During her tenure at the U.S. Attorney’s Office she worked in U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Policy, where, among other responsibilities, she worked on policies affecting people returning from incarceration. Hodge then spent time in the in the office of then Vice President Joe Biden as a policy advisor on criminal justice and drug policy issues.
Prior to her career in government, she spent four years working at a private law firm at the beginning of her legal career.
“EJUSA will benefit profoundly from Jami’s leadership,” said Nicholas Turner, president of Vera. “She carries an ambitious vision for change and also the experience that gives her sharp insights about the system we seek to transform. It is an extremely rare combination, which in combination with her management skills, relationship-building, and lived experience makes her truly one of a kind.”
“Jami is the perfect leader for Equal Justice USA at this critical time,” said Anthony Romero, executive director of the ACLU. “Her depth of experience in the criminal legal reform community at the Vera Institute of Justice and as a former prosecutor positions her as one of the next generation of leaders. At this critical time of racial reckoning and course correction as a country, we need leaders with vision, out-of-the-box thinking, and humility; Jami epitomizes all of those essential qualities.”
Hodge earned her law degree from Duke University School of Law and her bachelor of arts in psychology and sociology at the University of Michigan. Hodge will work from the Washington, D.C. area where she lives with her husband and two daughters.
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