Overview
Lori Toscano is a national expert in community violence intervention (CVI) with a focus on assisting states, localities, and community-based organizations with identifying, implementing, and operationalizing evidence-based strategies. As the Director of Justice Technical Assistance, Toscano builds communities of practice, resources, and tools for the field with a focus on violence prevention, intervention, reentry, and transformation and healing.
Toscano’s current projects include the PA Peace Alliance and the Violence Prevention Navigation Framework. PA Peace Alliance is a statewide community of practice serving over 300 grantees of Pennsylvania’s Commission on Crime and Delinquency (PCCD). Toscano provides direct technical assistance to grantees in the areas of capacity building, program development and implementation, data collection and analysis, and best practices. The Violence Prevention Navigation Framework is a new method for addressing gun violence that utilizes big data, machine learning, and the collective knowledge of local partners to analyze community and societal risk and protective factors. The framework includes developing recommendations for programs, policies, and strategies to address the identified causes, leading to data-informed funding and strategic decision-making aimed at effectively tackling root causes and historical inequities.
Before joining WestEd, Toscano was the Executive Director of Program Innovation at Cure Violence Global and the Director of Safe Streets Baltimore. She has provided technical assistance to the Department of Justice (DOJ) Office for Victims of Crime (OVC) and Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) Supporting Male Survivors of Violence and Advancing Hospital-Based Victims Services demonstration projects. She has worked both nationally and internationally in partnership with cities and communities disproportionally impacted by violence to identify and implement strategies and programming to reduce gun violence.
Education
- MS in criminal justice, University of Baltimore
- BS in interdisciplinary studies with a concentration in law enforcement, Towson State University
