Chief Program Officer, Policy, Research, and Prevention

### ABOUT THE INNOCENCE PROJECT The Innocence Project works to free the innocent, prevent wrongful convictions, and create fair, compassionate, and equitable systems of justice for everyone. Our work is guided by science and grounded in anti-racism. Since our inception, the Innocence Project has used DNA and other scientific advancements to prove wrongful conviction. To date, we have helped to free or exonerate more than 250 people who, collectively, spent more than 3,600 years behind bars. Our efforts have led to the passage of more than 200 transformative state laws and federal reforms. Today, the Innocence Project continues to fight for freedom, drive structural change, and advance the innocence movement. To learn more, please visit http://www.innocenceproject.org. ### ABOUT THE POSITION The **Chief Program Officer, Policy, Research, and Prevention** is responsible for oversight, management, and supervision of the following program areas: Policy, which advocates for legislative changes at both the state and federal levels to make our criminal legal system more fair, compassionate and equitable for everyone; Data Science & Research, which collects and manages information about every Innocence Project victory and researches the contributing factors to wrongful conviction and provides expertise to the Innocence Project’s staff; and Strategic Litigation which uses legal advocacy and training to strengthen the standards that govern the use of science in criminal legal systems. The **Chief Program Officer, Policy, Research, and Prevention** serves as a primary thought partner to the talented, creative, and hardworking team of experienced professionals that they lead. They are responsible for keeping the teams under their supervision aligned, focused, motivated, and high performing to ensure the effectiveness and quality of work in each area. This role is a member of the Senior Leadership Team, serving as an essential organizational leader with responsibilities that extend beyond their department. In this capacity, the **Chief Program Officer, Policy, Research, and Prevention** is responsible for contributing to the overall direction, strategy, and health of the organization. Specifically, they are responsible for: - effectively managing department staff to encourage alignment, motivation and high-performance, - contributing to organization wide strategic planning, decision making, and resource allocation, - responsible for achieving departmental objectives and regularly reporting on the department’s progress and outcomes to the Board, senior leadership, and the IP staff during office-wide meetings, and - modeling the Innocence Project’s values of an inclusive and respectful workplace and encouraging the same from their staff. The **Chief Program Officer, Policy, Research, and Prevention** reports to the Executive Director, and also works closely with all members of the Senior Leadership Team – including the Chief Program Officer, Exoneration Strategy & Support, Chief People and Culture Officer, Chief Financial Officer, Chief Communications Officer, and the Chief Development Officer – to advance the vision, strategy, goals, integration and cohesion of the Innocence Project. The **Chief Program Officer, Policy, Research, and Prevention** will model the Innocence Project’s values of an inclusive and respectful workplace and encourage the same from their staff. All Innocence Project employees must model our IP Values of accountability, collaboration, empathy + compassion, equity, person-centeredness, quality focus, and self-awareness. In addition, they must embrace, respect and value the rich diversity of perspectives and lived experience of our staff. We recognize and appreciate that our work is better for having varied participants and thought partners. We are interested in every qualified candidate who is eligible to work in the United States. However, we are not able to sponsor visas and we are not an e-verify employer. The duti…