Who we are

The Vera Institute of Justice, founded in 1961, is a nonprofit criminal justice organization that strives to build just government institutions and safe communities free from the scourge of racism, white supremacy, profit, and inequity that is pervasive in this country’s legal systems. We are an “inside” lane organization that drives change at scale with ambitious public sector leaders who share our commitment to building anti-racist, reparative systems that deliver justice. We leverage our access to government to transform these systems and work collaboratively with stakeholders across many movements—including advocacy, grassroots, and grassroots organizations. Our role is to pilot solutions that are transformative and achievable, harness the power of evidence to drive effective policy and practice, and use advocacy and communications to change narratives and norms.

Vera has a staff of almost 300 people and offices in New York City, Washington, DC, Los Angeles, and New Orleans. We are an equal opportunity employer with a commitment to diversity in the workplace. We expect our staff to embody respect, independence, collaboration, commitment, anti-racism, and equity—both in our outward-facing work and the internal culture of our workplace. We value a range of experiences in people’s educational backgrounds and encourage people who have been directly impacted by the criminal justice system to apply.

Vera’s Impact Pipeline

Vera generates ideas to transform the criminal legal and immigration systems and takes them to national scale. Following the completion of our strategic plan in 2020, we are expanding and formalizing our infrastructure for this multistage ideation and scaling process—which we call the Impact Pipeline. This staged process helps Vera staff generate ideas with potential for national impact, pilot those ideas, adapt and improve them, and evaluate their effectiveness. 

Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL)

The Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) team is a new team that plays the key role of ensuring that strategic learning and continuous improvement are integrated throughout the Impact Pipeline. The MEL team partners with colleagues across Vera’s Initiatives to define meaningful impact goals and milestones, co-create measurement and assessment tools, and provide regular and actionable feedback to inform and refine strategies. Our approach to MEL is collaborative and equitable: we strive to evaluate and learn in partnership with colleagues across the institute, community partners, and people directly impacted by our work and embrace MEL as a tool for shifting power. We also support an internal culture of learning, reflection, and strategic decision-making and help build MEL capacity and adaptive learning skills across the institute.

Who you are:

You are passionate about evaluation and using data and evidence to drive change and work towards social and racial justice. You are an analytical and systematic thinker, a curious listener, and a thoughtful communicator. You have experience collecting, analyzing, and presenting quantitative and/or qualitative data. You can support multiple projects simultaneously, working both independently and collaboratively with diverse colleagues.

Position summary:

The associate will work as part of a team providing MEL support to initiatives at all stages in the impact pipeline while strengthening Vera’s learning culture. Reporting to the Director of Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning, the MEL associate will be an important member of the MEL and Impact Pipeline teams and work collaboratively with colleagues across Vera. The associate’s primary responsibilities include:

• Supporting the development of MEL frameworks, indicators, and data collection tools and processes in collaboration with initiative staff
• Partnering with initiative team and impact pipeline colleagues to ensure that MEL, impact strategy, and initiatives’ implementation are mutually reinforcing, including supporting the development and implementation of processes for reflecting on MEL findings and making recommendations for course corrections and strategy refinements
• Coordinating with impact strategy, research, communications, and advocacy colleagues to ensure that MEL activities are aligned with work across the institute
• Building MEL capacity among staff and promoting a culture of strategic learning and reflection, including planning and facilitating MEL workshops and learning events and presenting at organization-wide meetings
• Communicating MEL data and results, including drafting reports, infographics, presentations, dashboards, and other materials tailored to internal and external audiences
• Conduct MEL activities including data collection (qualitative interviews or observation; surveys; analysis of administrative records and secondary data, quantitative instruments, etc)
• Lead and develop analyses of qualitative and quantitative MEL data, in consultation with initiative, research, and MEL colleagues
• Supervise and mentor analysts or interns on MEL tasks, as needed

The associate will work in close collaboration with other members of the Impact Pipeline team to advance the impact pipeline goals, engage in team meetings, and support efforts to integrate Vera’s race, equity, and inclusion priorities in MEL.

In this role, you will:

1. Collect, analyze, and communicate MEL data

• Conduct data collection and lead analyses of qualitative and/or quantitative MEL data
• Provide actionable and timely feedback to initiatives based on MEL data and findings via monitoring reports, presentations, dashboards, and other materials

2. Support the development of MEL tools and facilitate the strategic learning based on MEL data

• Support initiative teams to develop and refine meaningful and measurable impact goals, markers of progress, indicators, data collection tools, and frameworks, in alignment with their theories of change and work plans
• Create and facilitate opportunities for reflection and learning from MEL findings, including making recommendations for course corrections and strategy/theory of change refinements

3. Build MEL capacity and promote a culture of strategic learning within Vera

• Plan and facilitate MEL workshops and learning events and present at organization-wide meetings, in partnership with MEL and Impact Pipeline team colleagues
• Create reference materials to support MEL activities and processes
• Model learning and evaluative thinking by reflecting on how the MEL/Impact Pipeline teams can continuously improve our ways of working
• Identify patterns across different pieces of work and identify opportunities for cross-initiative learning

4. Support data and knowledge management

• Support the documentation of learning from the ideas and initiatives that are tested through the impact pipeline and contribute to building the Impact Pipeline knowledge pool
• Support the development and refinement of systems and processes to manage and report on MEL data

5. Other duties as assigned

What qualifications do you need?

Required:

• 4+ years  of professional experience in monitoring, evaluation, and learning
• Relevant work experience in measurement and evaluation, or related fields such as data-driven policy implementation or advocacy or implementation research
• Familiarity with evaluating advocacy and complex social change initiatives, theory of change, and participatory and/or community-based approaches to MEL
• Proficient in qualitative and quantitative analysis and data management
• Excellent communication skills and experience communicating MEL concepts and insights in accessible ways with diverse audiences
• Strong facilitation for evaluation-related meetings, dialogues, and capacity building sessions
• Demonstrated commitment to racial equity and its intersections and experience engaging in conversations about race, equity, and inclusion, including as part of MEL
• Excellent organizational skills and ability to work on multiple projects effectively and efficiently, both independently and collaboratively with a team
• Strong emotional intelligence, attention to power dynamics, and interest or experience with change management/organizational culture change
• Knowledge of or lived experience with criminal and immigration legal systems preferable

Preferred:

• Master’s degree in monitoring and evaluation, public health, public policy or related field
• Candidates with direct, lived experience of the criminal legal and/or immigration systems are encouraged to apply.
• Experience conducting qualitative analyses and basic statistical analyses.

List of required software applications:

• Experience with quantitative analyses through SPSS, R, STATA, Tableau, or similar programs and/or experience using NVivo, Dedoose, or other qualitative analysis software.
• Experience with Microsoft Office.

Applications may also be faxed to:

ATTN: Human Resources / MEL Associate, Research, Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning
Vera Institute of Justice
34 35th St, Suite 4-2A, Brooklyn, NY 11232
Fax: (212) 941-9407
Please use only one method (online, mail or fax) of submission.
No phone calls, please. Only applicants selected for interviews will be contacted.

As a federal contractor, and in order to ensure a healthy and safe work environment, Vera Institute of Justice is requiring all employees to be fully vaccinated and provide proof of their COVID-19 vaccine before their start date. Employees who cannot receive the vaccine because of a disability/medical contraindication or sincerely-held religious belief may request an accommodation (e.g., an exemption) to this requirement.

Vera is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer.  All qualified applicants will be considered for employment without unlawful discrimination based on race, color, creed, national origin, sex, age, disability, marital status, sexual orientation, military status, prior record of arrest or conviction, citizenship status, current employment status, or caregiver status. 

Vera works to advance justice, particularly racial justice, in an increasingly multicultural country and globally connected world. We value diverse experiences, including with regard to educational background and justice system contact, and depend on a diverse staff to carry out our mission. 

For more information about Vera, please visit www.vera.org