Advancing Science: The Official Newsletter of the NIJ Director

Welcome to the inaugural issue of Advancing Science: The Official Newsletter of the NIJ Director. I know you have many ways of keeping up with NIJ, but this newsletter is a bit different. Its purpose is to elevate my priorities and engagements as NIJ Director and to share some of the many exciting activities in which NIJ staff, grantees, and practitioner and community partners are involved. These include conferences where our team and I will be speaking and discussion of pressing topics in the field.  

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MY PRIORITIES

With the new school year in full swing, I’d like to share NIJ’s latest resources on the science of school safety. A recent OpEd by me and BJS Director Alex Piquero features the evidence base on preventing and mitigating mass shootings in schools and points to a new research brief on five facts on mass shootings in K-12 schools. And Mary Carlton on our team, NIJ’s school leading school safety expert, is featured in a Justice Today podcast episode on the same topic. I recognize that these resources don’t always reach their intended audiences. NIJ staff are working hard to develop new strategies to ensure that evidence on the best ways to thwart school shootings and keep schools safe result in real changes on the ground.

SCHOOL SAFETY AT NIJ

I’m thrilled to announce that NIJ’s Dr. Angela Moore was recently appointed as Senior Advisor in my Director’s office. Angela and I had the pleasure working together when I was employed at NIJ some two decades ago, and I’ve long admired her research expertise, intentionality, and professionalism. In her new position, she will advance my priorities as Director with a specific focus on fostering rigorous and inclusive research, elevating studies that apply a racial equity lens, and ensuring that research evidence is translated into actionable information to promote change in the field.

One of my first orders of business when I was appointed in May was to begin updating NIJ’s strategic research plans. The first one out of the gate is on forensic science. The speed at which forensics evolves, coupled with increasing demands for services in the face of diminishing resources, is a huge focus for how NIJ does business. Take a look at our five main priorities in forensic research and how we plan to act on them.

SEE THE PLAN