Jacki Chernicoff currently oversees the National Resource Center for Reaching Victims’ “Reaching Victims of Crime” Innovation Grants program, whose purpose is to fund projects that address unmet needs and close gaps that prevent survivors from underserved communities from accessing and benefiting from healing services and avenues to justice. She provides tailored technical assistance and guidance to the mini-grant projects in support of their goals; fosters connections between them and the NRC partners; and convenes a monthly national learning community amongst the projects.

In addition to Jacki’s role on the NRC, she has contributed to the Vera Institute of Justice’s Center on Victimization and Safety’s (CVS) work on the Translating Justice Initiative, a unified language access curriculum designed to provide crime-victim service providers and justice-related professionals a blueprint to ensure language access is realized for victims of crime who have limited English proficiency or who are Deaf or hard of hearing. Jacki also served as a member of CVS’ Accessing Safety Initiative team where she provided technical assistance to, and cultivated organizational change with collaborations striving to enhance services to meet the needs of individuals with disabilities and Deaf individuals who are victims of domestic and/or sexual violence.

Prior to joining Vera, Jacki worked at the Kings County District Attorney’s Office in Brooklyn, New York where she assisted victims/survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence in navigating the criminal justice system and acted as a bridge between them and the prosecutor. While there she also co-developed, and coordinated an alternative to incarceration program for youth arrested for prostitution. Jacki has been an adjunct lecturer at, and has a Master’s degree in Social Work from New York University.