Koya | Diversified Search Group partnered with Urban Insitute on its Senior Fellow search. Our work resulted in the placement of David Pitts, a senior policy researcher with twenty years of applied research experience in nonprofit and academic organizations.

Urban Institute is a nonprofit research organization and the trusted source for unbiased, authoritative insights that inform consequential choices about the well-being of people and places in the United States. Urban Institute believes decisions shaped by facts, rather than ideology, have the power to improve public policy and practice, strengthen communities, and transform people’s lives for the better.

David Pitts is a senior fellow in the Justice Policy Center and principal investigator for the Prison Research and Innovation Initiative. His research focuses on understanding and mitigating the harms of incarceration on those who live and work in America’s prisons.

Pitts comes to Urban Institute from the Vera Institute of Justice, where he led work about the experiences of incarcerated transgender people, postsecondary education in prison, family visitation, and solitary confinement.

In addition to his criminal legal system research, Pitts has written extensively on issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion in public policy. He has consulted for government organizations at all levels, from small cities to federal agencies, and has taught a variety of courses to graduate students in public policy and criminal justice programs.

A native of Birmingham, Alabama, David earned a bachelor’s degree from Birmingham-Southern College; master’s degrees from Indiana University and the University of California, Irvine; and a Ph.D. from the University of Georgia.

We invite you to read the announcement: Urban Institute Announces New Leadership in Justice Policy.