Nancy La Vigne

Nancy La Vigne is a criminologist who is the director of the National Institute of Justice of the United States. She previously served as the vice president for Justice Policy, directing the Justice Policy Center at the Urban Institute, a Washington, D.C.–based think tank. Her work focuses on data-driven and research-informed improvements to policy and practice on a wide array of criminal justice topics and justice-involved populations.

La Vigne was honored with the Distinguished Public Service Award from the LBJ School of Public Affairs in 2018, and in 2017, she received the Herbert Block Award, given by the American Society of Criminology. In 2024, she delivered the Mastrofski Lecture at George Mason University's departments of criminology and law and society. La Vigne is the Dean of Rutgers University's School of Criminal Justice.