Nick Turner
Nicholas Turner joined the Vera Institute of Justice as its fifth president and director in August 2013. He
is the first person of color to occupy the role. He is also the president and director of Vera Action. Under
his leadership, Vera has committed itself to ending overcriminalization and mass incarceration in the
United States. Vera works to shrink jails and prisons, elevate a commitment to human dignity, and
redefine how public safety is delivered, with a greater investment in public health and community.
Nick previously served at Vera from 1998 to 2007, during which time he guided the expansion of Vera’s
national work, launching and directing Vera’s state sentencing and corrections program while
supervising Vera’s domestic violence projects and the creation of its youth justice program. Prior to re-
joining Vera, Nick was a managing director at the Rockefeller Foundation, an associate in the litigation
department of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, and a judicial clerk for the late Honorable Jack
B. Weinstein. Earlier in his career, before attending Yale Law School, Nick worked with court-involved,
homeless, and disconnected young people at Sasha Bruce Youthwork, a Washington, DC youth services
organization.
Nick is a current trustee for the Council on Criminal Justice and the Policy Academies, a nonprofit
dedicated to creating a pathway for BIPOC students into policy advocacy. He is chair of the Advisory
Board of the Policing Project at NYU Law and serves on the Leadership Advisory Council for the Tsai
Leadership Program at Yale Law School as well as the Independent Commission on New York City
Criminal Justice and Incarceration Reform.