Danielle Kushner

Dr. Danielle Kushner joined the Center for Policing Equity in November 2021. Danielle’s work background includes experience in community organizing, international development and higher education. Prior to coming to CPE, she worked as an Assistant Professor of Political Science at St. Mary’s College of Maryland and Loyola University Maryland, where she taught and conducted research on the politics of crime and policing.

Danielle has years of experience advocating for police reform in her hometown of Baltimore City. In 2017, the Mayor appointed Danielle to the Community Oversight Task Force (COTF.) The COTF was charged with studying Baltimore’s system of civilian oversight and recommending ways to strengthen it and police-community relations. After the task force was dissolved, Danielle continued to work with two of her task force colleagues to develop innovative ways of healing the relationship between the police and the communities they serve. In 2019, Danielle and her colleagues founded Reconcile Baltimore to formally conduct the work of trust-building between the police and community. Her interest in and work on reconciliation in Baltimore’s communities has also been informed by her many years working in South Africa, where some of the most comprehensive work on reconciliation has been done.