Josie Halpern-Finnerty
Vice President, Chief of Staff
Josie Halpern-Finnerty serves as the Chief of Staff at FWD.us, working closely with executive leadership and the broader team to shift criminal justice and immigration policy and politics for the better. Before joining FWD.us, Josie led an initiative to close a seismically unfit jail in San Francisco under District Attorney Chesa Boudin. Earlier, Josie spent seven years with the City of Oakland working to drive down gun violence through community-based intervention and support. Whether she’s developing a citywide shooting response protocol in Oakland or establishing a jail population review in San Francisco, Josie is driven to improve systems and lead teams to accomplish ambitious goals. Josie earned her master’s degree in public policy from the Goldman School at the University of California, Berkeley, and her undergraduate degree from Macalester College in Minnesota. She grew up in San Francisco and Minneapolis, and currently calls the Bay Area home.