Program Manager, Crime and Justice Policy Lab

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The University of Pennsylvania, the largest private employer in Philadelphia, is a world-renowned leader in education, research, and innovation. This historic, Ivy League school consistently ranks among the top 10 universities in the annual U.S. News & World Report survey. Penn has 12 highly-regarded schools that provide opportunities for undergraduate, graduate and continuing education, all influenced by Penn’s distinctive interdisciplinary approach to scholarship and learning. As an employer Penn has been ranked nationally on many occasions with the most recent award from Forbes who named Penn one of America’s Best Large Employers in 2023.

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The University offers a competitive benefits package that includes excellent healthcare and tuition benefits for employees and their families, generous retirement benefits, a wide variety of professional development opportunities, supportive work and family benefits, a wealth of health and wellness programs and resources, and much more.

Posted Job Title

Program Manager, Crime and Justice Policy Lab

Job Profile Title

Coordinator C

Job Description Summary

The Crime and Justice Policy Lab (CJP) at the University of Pennsylvania seeks a program manager with strong analytical and project management skills to be embedded within the City of Philadelphia’s Office of Public Safety (OPS). The incumbent will support the City’s community violence reduction efforts through strategic coordination, creative problem-solving, and evidence-based policy translation, while flexibly contributing to emerging priorities and cross-sector collaboration. Acting as a bridge between CJP and OPS, the associate will collaborate with City agencies, community stakeholders, and academic teams to enhance public safety outcomes in Philadelphia.

Job Description

This position is working in the Crime and Justice Policy Lab (CJP), a research group within the University of Pennsylvania Department of Criminology. The mission of CJP is to apply rigorous methods of scientific research to improve public safety in disadvantaged communities, centering those communities in the design and execution of policy ideas, and ensuring that research and government policy is being done with communities rather than to communities. The end goal for our work is that citizens in Philadelphia and other major cities are able to enjoy safety in their day-to-day lives. CJP works primarily in Philadelphia, Boston, Baltimore, Oakland, and San Francisco, and with several federal government partners and international partners in Latin America and the Caribbean.

CJP projects often pursue a “triple bottom line”—our successful projects are ones that reduce violence that is affecting communities, reduce incarceration, and lessen the burden of policing on communities by generating fewer and more just interactions between police and community members. As many of our projects directly work with the criminal justice system to achieve these goals, we need to be comfortable both holding th