Who We Are
Charles A. Lieberman, Ph.D., Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer
Charles Lieberman has been involved with the field of criminal justice for over 30 years, both as a criminal justice practitioner and academic. Charles served the New York City Police Department (NYPD) from 1990-2005 and 2011-2015. While he spent the majority of his early career focused on criminal investigations, he ended his NYPD career working for the Deputy Commissioner of Training’s Special Projects Unit, focused on innovations in training, evaluation, and policy. Subsequent to retirement from NYPD, he served as Director of Policy and Research for a New York City Councilmember for 2 years. Charles has been teaching since 2005, while pursuing his Ph.D. in Criminal Justice from the Graduate Center, City University of New York, which he completed in 2009. His doctoral dissertation focused on community policing and counter-terrorism. Charles currently serves as the Criminal Justice Program Director, co-Director of the Center for Social & Criminal Justice, and Assistant Professor at Mercy University. Prior to Mercy, Charles was a full-time faculty member at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and the University of New Haven, where he also served as Director of the Graduate Program in National Security & Public Safety.
Nicole M. Napolitano, Ph.D., Co-founder and Chief Strategist
Dr. Nicole M. Napolitano has over a decade and a half of experience as a research and policy professional and a career commitment to police reform and social justice. Dr. Napolitano is the Director of Research Strategy at the Center for Policing Equity (CPE), and served in senior managerial roles in two of New York City’s largest police oversight agencies. As the Director of Policy and Advocacy for the New York City Civilian Complaint Review Board (CCRB), which investigates, mediates, and prosecutes civilian allegations of misconduct against uniformed members of the New York City Police Department (NYPD), Dr. Napolitano led the unit that conducts the CCRB’s quantitative and qualitative evaluations of CCRB complaints and NYPD protocols and training and makes recommendations for policy changes based on those analyses. Prior to the CCRB, as Senior Policy Manager with the Office of the Inspector General for the New York City Police Department (OIG-NYPD), she led multidisciplinary teams of policy analysts, auditors, data assistants, investigators, and attorneys to conduct systemic reviews of the policies and procedures of the NYPD, producing public-facing reports of findings and recommendations for change. In addition, she has been an academic in criminal justice for almost 20 years.
Justice, Accountability and Security Institute 