Ana Yáñez-Correa, Ph.D., who came to the Public Welfare Foundation in 2015 to direct the Criminal Justice Program, will become Director of Community Engagement for Harris County Precinct One in Harris County (Houston), Texas, under the leadership of Commissioner Rodney Ellis. Her departure is effective March 31.
During Yáñez-Correa’s tenure, the Foundation’s Criminal Justice portfolio has focused on state-based advocacy to promote sentencing reform to reduce over-incarceration of adults in the U.S., particularly in state prisons, where more than 80 percent of prisoners are held. Another area of focus for the Foundation is the redirection of state and local resources toward targeted investments that help formerly incarcerated individuals get the help and support they need when they return to communities. And, in seeking to reduce racial disparities, the Foundation has highlighted the lack of consistent data on the involvement of Latinx in the criminal justice system.
Yáñez-Correa came to the Foundation after spending 10 years building and running the Texas Criminal Justice Coalition (TCJC), a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that advanced significant bipartisan justice reforms in Texas. In 2014, she helped launch the Smart-on-Crime Coalition, a bipartisan effort that included business, public policy, and civil rights groups in Texas.
In announcing Yáñez-Correa’s departure to grantees, Foundation President and CEO Candice C. Jones said, “I, and our Board of Directors, are enormously grateful to Ana for her energy and vision in leading the Criminal Justice Program for the past two years. We wish her all the best as she returns to Texas and embarks on an important new venture.”
