JHA Names Jennifer Vollen-Katz Executive Director

The John Howard Association (JHA) is pleased to announce that Jennifer Vollen-Katz has been appointed its new Executive Director, effective May 6, 2015. Vollen-Katz has been the Interim Executive Director since January 19, 2015, and her appointment follows a nationwide search by the Board for the successor to John Maki, who left to join the Rauner Administration as the Executive Director of the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority (ICJIA). Vollen-Katz has been with the JHA since February of 2012, most recently as the Director of JHA’s Juvenile Justice Project. She serves as Chair person to the State Advisory Board to the Illinois Department of Juvenile Justice, and she is on the board of ICJIA.

Jennifer has a law degree from the Georgetown University Law Center and an MSc in Criminal Justice Policy from the London School of Economics. Before she came to John Howard, Jennifer’s background included Lecturer in Law and supervising attorney in the Federal Criminal Justice Project of the Mandel Legal Aid Clinic at the University of Chicago Law School, Staff Attorney at the Federal Defender Program of the Northern District of Illinois, and Staff for the United States' Senate Judiciary Committee.

The Board looks forward to Vollen-Katz’s leadership in continuing the mission of the JHA, which is to provide independent monitoring of correctional policies and practices and to promote prison reform in order to achieve a fair, humane and effective criminal justice system.

Frederic J. Artwick
Board President