Sherene Crawford

Sherene Crawford is the Chief of Staff at the Center for Justice Innovation, where she works with the Executive Director to optimize effectiveness, serving as a thought partner and trusted advisor. She supports and manages the implementation of the Executive Director’s strategic priorities and advances transparency, diversity, equity, inclusion, and a mission-centric focus through internal communications and collaboration. Previously Sherene served as Director of the Center's criminal justice programs. Sherene began her career at the Center as the project director at Midtown Community Court, where she oversaw the court’s long-term planning and daily operations.

Before joining the Center, Sherene worked at the National Network for Safe Communities at John Jay College of Criminal Justice as Deputy Director for the Institute for Innovation in Prosecution and as a Senior Policy Advisor. Sherene has also served in multiple capacities in the New York County District Attorney’s Office. Sherene served as an Assistant District Attorney and later as an Executive Assistant District Attorney and Division Chief of the Pathways to Public Safety Division. As the inaugural Division Chief, she was instrumental in developing office policies that required the consideration of alternatives to incarceration to reduce the use of carceral sentences, advancing a more restorative and rehabilitative approach to justice.

Earlier in her career, Sherene spent nearly a decade working with survivors of intimate partner violence at the Mayor's Office to Combat Domestic Violence and Safe Horizon. She earned her J.D. from New York Law School and her B.A. in Women’s Studies from the University of Minnesota. Sherene is a licensed attorney in New York State.