On Wednesday, November 20th the Justice Collaboratory co-sponsored an event with Dwight Hall at Yale to welcome Will Snowden, Director of the New Orleans VERA Institute of Justice office. Mr. Snowden presented on the topic of "Reimagining Jury Duty & Bail Reform in the 21st Century".

In his role, Mr. Snowden continues and strengthens Vera’s existing partnerships with criminal justice actors and community leaders while identifying new collaborative relationships with government entities and community organizations. The collaborations will focus on improving criminal justice systems in the South. Prior to joining Vera, Will was a public defender for five years representing New Orleanians in all stages of a case from arraignment to trial.

He has also developed a focus and specialization in advocacy around reforming the procedures, systems, and policies around jury duty in an effort to promote diversity and representativeness in the jury box. Snowden also launched The Juror Project—an initiative aiming to increase the diversity of jury panels while changing and challenging people’s perspective of jury duty.