Who We Are
Charles A. Lieberman, Ph.D., Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer
Dr. 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 has served as 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 is a criminologist with over 20 years of experience working with law enforcement agencies, municipalities, and communities to build more effective and equitable public safety and accountability systems. Her work includes quantitative and qualitative evaluations and systemic reviews of policing practices and outcomes, policy and legislative analysis, training and speaking engagements, and advising police executives, elected officials, and government agencies.
Dr. Napolitano’s career spans government, nonprofit, and private sectors. She has served in several managerial and leadership roles, including Director of Research Strategy at the Center for Policing Equity (CPE), Director of Policy and Advocacy for the New York City Civilian Complaint Review Board (CCRB), and Senior Policy Manager with the New York City Department of Investigation’s Office of the Inspector General for the New York City Police Department (OIG-NYPD). In addition, she is an academic researcher and has held faculty positions at several colleges and universities, including long-term roles in the Department of Africana Studies and the Master’s Program in Criminal Justice at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Her scholarly research focuses on criminal justice policy development and implementation, the efficacy and social impact of law enforcement policies and practices, the use of data and technology in policing, and comparative police accountability approaches.
Dr. Napolitano holds a Ph.D. in Criminal Justice from the City University of New York, a Master’s in Forensic Psychology and a Master’s in Criminology from John Jay College of Criminal Justice, a Bachelor’s in Anthropology from the University at Albany, and a Certificate in Enterprise Risk Management for Government from George Washington University.
Justice, Accountability and Security Institute 