Lamar Blackwell

Lamar Blackwell is the Founding Director of BUILD's Pittsburgh branch. Prior to this, they were a Candidate for PA House District 24 and the Pittsburgh Program Director & CEO of the Center for Employment Opportunities.

Lamar has dedicated their career to criminal justice reform and helping those who have been incarcerated re-enter society. As the Director and CEO of the Center for Employment Opportunities, they improved every stage of the program model from inmate enrollments, job coaching, and job placements, all the way through to retention services.

In addition to their work with the Center for Employment Opportunities, Lamar has also been successful in mitigating community violence in at-risk communities after administering a study on program participants. Lamar has partnered with other "justice-centered" organizations and the Allegheny County Jail to create an extremely strong referral stream in order to attract returning citizens, target our desired demographic, increase organizational enrollments, increase participants on SNAP and decrease racial and ethnic disparities in the county jail by 20%.

Lamar's work has had a profound impact on those they have served. Lamar has revitalized the organizational culture and reset expectations around system documentation, leading to an average of 30% increase in case completion per staff member. Lamar has also reduced recidivism rates by 37% by measuring (SPSS) needs of re-entrants and connecting those needs to community resources in our program.

Lamar Blackwell has a Master of Public Administration from Georgia State University's Andrew Young School of Policy Studies and a Bachelor's degree in Pre-Law/Political Science from Morehouse College. Lamar also has a law degree from Georgia State University College of Law.

and Emily Donato - Senior Program Manager reports to Lamar Blackwell. Lamar Blackwell works with Pepper Hayes - Director, Development Operations & Communications, Karleton Thomas - Regional Executive Director, DC, and Dale Lemke - Chief Finance & Operations Officer. Lamar Blackwell reports to Ayele Shakur, CEO.