Jessica Yager

Jessica Yager is the Senior Director of Housing Justice Initiatives at the Center for Justice Innovation. In this role, she supports the direct service housing work the Center does across many of its operating programs and leads the Center’s national work supporting cross-sector partnerships at the intersection of housing, the justice system, and community safety. She previously served as the Project Director of the Center’s Red Hook Community Justice Center, a multijurisdictional community court and community center located in Brooklyn, NY. Jessica came to the Center with over two decades of experience working to advance criminal justice and housing justice. For ten years, she worked as a public interest attorney, first as an appellate public defender and then as the founding director of the Foreclosure Prevention Project at Queens Legal Services. Jessica then pivoted to working on public policy. For seven years, she worked at the NYU Furman Center, a housing policy research center, as the Policy Director and then as the Executive Director. She also worked at Win, a large homeless services agency, as the Vice President of Policy and Planning, leading research, policy, and internal strategic reform efforts. Jessica is a graduate of Wesleyan University and the NYU School of Law.