A Note From Joanna

After months of thoughtful consideration, I have decided to step down as Co-Executive Director of the Fines and Fees Justice Center.

By the time I leave next spring, FFJC will have been my professional home for nine years, the longest and most meaningful commitment of my career. When Lisa Foster and I founded FFJC in 2018, we did it because we wanted to do the work. We saw gaps in the fines and fees reform movement and set out to build an organization that could fill them: developing research and best practices and putting those tools in the hands of advocates across the country. We traveled to learn from the people closest to this fight, built coalitions, and worked to grow the philanthropy a national movement would need.

Since then, FFJC has grown from the two of us into a team of 26: researchers, advocates, communications experts, and a talented senior leadership team. Together with our partners, we have launched more than 70 successful campaigns that delivered fines and fees reform in politically diverse cities, counties, and states. That progress is proof that this is one of the rare issues that can unify people across the ideological spectrum. The report we released this past spring, The Cost We No Longer Pay, captures just some of what that has meant: billions of dollars in relief kept in the pockets of families and communities.

With that growth, the Executive Director role has changed. It has rightly become a more traditional one, focused more on organizational management and further removed from the day-to-day work itself. I have spent my career as a builder and strategist in city government, philanthropy, and here at FFJC. I believe the role FFJC needs today calls for something different from what I am best suited to give.

I also believe no one should hold this role forever. Turning it over invites new ideas and new strategies, and that is what keeps an organization healthy and growing. Rather than hold on to what is comfortable, I believe I can be of greater service by taking on new projects that call on those same skills.

I would not make this decision if I did not have the utmost confidence in this organization’s future. Effective January 1, 2027, with the unanimous support of our Board, Priya Sarathy Jones will become FFJC’s sole Executive Director. Priya has led alongside me as Co-Executive Director for nearly two years and has been part of FFJC’s leadership since she joined in 2019. Her deep dedication, alongside her skill and judgment, will ensure that FFJC continues to grow and thrive in its next chapter.

I will step down as Co-Executive Director on December 31, 2026, and stay on as a Senior Advisor through early March to work closely with Priya and make the transition seamless.

I am so tremendously proud of what we’ve built and the real progress we’ve made. FFJC exists because people believed in this work early and stayed with it. That work is far from finished, but it is in strong hands, and the fight to end the criminalization of poverty continues.

With gratitude,
Joanna