Lowell Johnston is an accomplished attorney who has been in private practice since 1994. His areas of practice include labor and employment, real estate, corporate, non-profit and litigation. He is also an Adjunct Professor of Law at CUNY Law School. Prior to starting his own practice Mr. Johnston was a partner at Arnelle & Hastie where his practice areas included general commercial and real estate litigation. He has also worked with the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund.

Merrick Bobb is the President and founding director of PARC, a project the Vera Institute of Justice developed and launched in Los Angeles. A lawyer, he was the first person to occupy the role of police monitor and has become a nationally recognized expert on police oversight and reform. Mr. Bobb has monitored the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department for twelve years and has consulted with jurisdictions around the country and with the U.S. Department of Justice.

Michael Graham was employed by the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department for 32 years, rising through the ranks from Deputy to Assistant Sheriff.  Now retired from the Sheriff's Department, he has remained active with the California police Summer Games, the World Police and Fire Games, and the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) Policy Center.  He serves as a consultant to the Civil Rights Division of the United States Department of Justice in connection with their pattern and practice investigations of police misconduct in a number of different jurisdictions.

Thomas E. Holliday is a partner in the Litigation Department in Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher's Los Angeles office.  He is also co-Chair of the firm's White Collar Defense and Investigations Practice Group.  From 1995 to 1999, he was the co-Partner-in-Charge of the Los Angeles office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher.  He received his undergraduate degree from Stanford University, where he was elected Phi Beta Kappa, and his law degree from the University of Southern California, where he served as an Executive Editor of the Law Review and was elected to the Order of the Coif.

Mr. Holliday focuses on white collar criminal defense work and commercial fraud litigation.  He has defended individuals and corporate entities in a wide range of business fraud prosecutions.

Mr. Holliday is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers and served as Deputy General Counsel for the Independent Commission on the the Los Angeles Police Department (the "Christopher Commission").  He also served on the LAPD Police Commission Rampart Review Panel.

Mr. Holliday is past President of the Southwest Museum and the Federal Association.  He currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Los Angeles Police Memorial Foundation, the Board of Directors of the Police Assessment Resource Center, and the Board of Trustees of Clarkson University.

Michael P. Jacobson joined the Vera Institute of Justice as director in January 2005. He is the author of Downsizing Prisons: How to Reduce Crime and End Mass Incarceration (New York University Press 2005).  He was the New York City Correction Commissioner from 1995 to 1998.  From 1992 to 1996, he was New York City's Probation Commissioner, and from 1984 to 1992, he worked in the New York City Office of Management and Budget where he was the Deputy Budget Director.  Immediately before joining Vera, he was a professor at the City University of New York Graduate Center and the John Jay College of Criminal Justice where he taught courses in urban sociology, criminology, public policy and finance, corrections and criminal justice policies and public administration.  He established and coordinated an Associate Degree program on Rikers Island for correction officers and staff and received funding from New York State Legislature to design, implement and evaluate a college course on police leadership and human dignity for first line police supervisors.