The NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF) is the country’s first and foremost civil and human rights law organization. Founded in 1940 under the leadership of Thurgood Marshall, who subsequently became the first Black U.S. Supreme Court Justice, LDF was launched at a time when the nation’s aspirations for equality and due process of law were stifled by widespread state-sponsored racial inequality. From that era to the present, LDF’s mission has been transformative — to achieve racial justice, equality, and an inclusive society.
LDF’s litigation, public policy advocacy, and public education programs in the substantive areas of criminal justice, economic justice, education, and political participation seek to ensure the fundamental and basic human rights of all people to quality education, economic opportunity, the right to vote and fully participate in democracy, and the right to a fair and just judicial system. LDF continues to make an impact in the area of public service and was recognized by Fast Company as one of its 2023 Brands That Matter (https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.fastcompany.com%2F90953733%2Fpublic-service-brands-that-matter-2023&data=05%7C02%7Casiebert%40naacpldf.org%7Cb60ac3a54fa44b4f040708dcccffd1fe%7C2967f4d227ee48cd99a70b94ea66a705%7C0%7C0%7C638610646597233722%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=Cypl3CGJ3%2FqLA2IZpCSsgWlBuGGENiTLBZHK1jFo0r8%3D&reserved=0)under its public service category.
The Thurgood Marshall Institute
Since its founding under the leadership of Thurgood Marshall in 1940, LDF has been committed to transforming this nation’s promise of equality into reality for all Americans. In 2015, LDF celebrated its 75th anniversary with the launch of the Thurgood Marshall Institute (TMI). The Institute is a collaborative research and archival hub within LDF that combines a multidisciplinary approach to advocacy with LDF’s traditional litigation strengths to advance a modern vision of racial justice. The Institute’s goals are to enhance LDF’s use and mobilization of research, archives, and public education to increase its capacity to fight for racial equity, justice, and a more inclusive democracy through targeted advocacy and high-impact communications campaigns.
Through TMI, LDF generates and integrates innovative research, advocacy, archival materials, and strategic communications aimed at educating the public and key decision-makers. This added capacity leverages LDF’s litigation expertise, advocacy experience, and unique leadership role on matters of race, law, and policy to shape the narrative on racial justice and equity. Through targeted campaigns that attack entrenched problems of racial bias, TMI advances holistic strategies to achieve obtainable and lasting solutions on issues of criminal justice, political participation, education, and economic opportunity. In addition, the Institute serves as an active convener of thought-leaders from various disciplines to engage on cutting-edge issues of racial justice in both public and private fora.
In 2024, TMI launched LDF Recollection: A Civil Rights Legal Archive. The website contains stories and primary source materials documenting the history of LDF and the Civil Rights Movement in the U.S. This initiative represents a significant milestone in LDF’s mission to preserve and promote our legacy of civil rights, activism, and advocacy. The core of the website is a searchable digital collection with over 12,000 legal documents, letters, photographs, press releases, original oral history interviews, and other materials from the LDF Archives. The archivists’ work is ongoing as they actively survey, arrange, describe, and digitize select records from LDF’s collection of over 8,000 boxes and multiple terabytes of born-digital records. Their workflow also includes a final step in which the team’s Archives Counsel reviews digitized documents to ensure they do not contain privileged, confidential, or sensitive information.
LDF operates in a hybrid work environment where employees are expected to be in the office a minimum of two days per week, unless otherwise indicated.
Along with a resume and cover letter, applicants are expected to submit an independently authored piece of writing. While it may have undergone review or editing by others, it should primarily reflect your own work.
Responsibilities:
Departmental Leadership
- Reports directly to the TMI Director and provides supervision across both the Research and Archives teams.
- Serve as a thought-partner with the TMI Director to develop and implement strategic goals for the department, ensuring alignment with broader organizational objectives.
- Lead department meetings and retreats, including agenda development in collaboration with the TMI Director and Managers, to ensure strategic alignment and team engagement.
- Collaborate with TMI Director on budgeting and the recruitment and hiring of key Research and Archives staff, including TMI fellows and scholars, to ensure alignment with organizational and departmental needs and strategic priorities.
- Guide and mentor staff to fully understand and effectively execute their job responsibilities, fostering accountability through performance reviews, professional development, and leadership opportunities.
- Build and maintain relationships with internal and external stakeholders to enhance departmental initiatives and resources, which include managing budgets, grant compliance, and vendor contracts in coordination with the TMI Director.
- Develop and complete annual professional development plans to stay current on developments in the field.
- Represents TMI in public forums, including conferences, media appearances, and other external engagements, to elevate the Institute’s research, archival projects, and advocacy.
- Help identify and support cross-functional projects that connect research, archives, and public education.
Archives Oversight
- Lead in coordination with the TMI Director the strategy, development, and execution of archival projects to preserve and promote LDF’s civil rights legacy in collaboration with the team.
- Work with the Archives Department on refinement, implementation, and management of LDF’s efforts to review its archived records for publication.
- Work with the Archives Department on the dissemination and promotion of LDF’s archival records, including those housed at the Library of Congress, both internally and externally.
- Support archives team members through meetings to ensure work product meets high-quality standards, maintains TMI’s voice, and advances LDF advocacy goals within an established timeframe and budget.
Research Oversight
- Develop and support the implementation of the research agenda to align with TMI and LDF’s strategic priorities, including qualitative and quantitative research design, public-facing reports, and policy briefs in collaboration with TMI Director.
- Supervise research team members, including senior researchers, fellows, and associated team members, to ensure products meet high-quality research standards, maintain TMI’s voice, advance LDF advocacy goals, and are completed within an established timeframe and budget.
- Support TMI researchers in the preparation and submission of IRB applications, grant submissions, and the submission of grant reports of research activities.
- Review research findings for publication, ensuring that reports, papers, and presentations accurately reflect the data and adhere to ethical standards across all research stages, from proposal to publication, to prevent misconduct and promote transparency.
- Coordinate the evaluation of TMI’s publications for external review in collaboration with the TMI Director to ensure the integrity and quality of research outputs. Selecting appropriate reviewers, facilitating constructive dialogue, and synthesizing insights guide revisions or project advancements, maintaining scholarly excellence and innovation.
- Supervise the oversight of the Social Science Research Network (SSRN), National Police Funding Database, and the Death Row USA Report, ensuring the reports and website data are current.
- Develop and update research policies and procedures (manual).
- Oversee interdepartmental rapid research requests, ensuring that requests are aligned with LDF’s strategic priorities.
- Provide editorial oversight and strategic review of TMI’s research publications to ensure rigor, clarity, and alignment with LDF’s advocacy goals.
- Facilitate interdisciplinary collaborations with scholars and advocacy partners.
Qualifications:
- Ph.D. required, J.D. and/or MLIS equivalent preferred, advanced terminal degree in a relevant field (e.g., law, criminal justice, sociology, education policy, public health, political science, demography, or other social science field).
- Minimum of 10 years of professional experience with expertise in civil rights history, academic research, or civil rights advocacy, including supervisory experience.
- Experience developing research on civil rights issues with a focus on addressing racial discrimination and/or racially disparate outcomes.
- A minimum of 8 years of experience managing staff, including nonprofit program management, with a demonstrated ability to lead diverse teams.
- Strong written and oral communication skills, with a strong track record of published work in academic (peer-reviewed or law review), policy, or public-facing outlets.
- Deep knowledge of Black history, civil rights history, and contemporary racial justice issues.
- Significant experience working within nonprofit or academic institutions.
- Proven success managing diverse, multidisciplinary teams across program areas.
- Adaptable, collaborative, self-motivated, creative problem solver with careful attention to detail.
- Experience with public speaking with the ability to effectively represent LDF’s mission to diverse external audiences.
- Experience developing and managing publications, research workflows, and strategic campaigns required.
Preferred:
- Demonstrated expertise in archival management, collections development, and historical research.
- Experience managing budgets.
- Successful record of using multiple campaign strategies to achieve positive social change, including, for example, advocacy, research, archives, organizing, communications, and litigation.
- Familiarity with open-access publication platforms, data visualization tools, or digital humanities methods is a plus.
The salary range for this position is:
New York: $147,200-$184,000
Washington, D.C.: $140,800-$176,000
This is not an exhaustive list of all responsibilities, duties, skills, efforts, requirements, or working conditions associated with the job. While this is intended to be an accurate reflection of the current job, management reserves the right to revise the job or to require that other or different tasks be performed as assigned. This description does not constitute a contract of employment, and LDF may exercise its employment-at-will rights at any time.
LDF offers all eligible employees a generous benefits package. To learn more, click the following link 2026 Benefits Overview.
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The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer. We are committed to providing equal employment opportunities to you without regard to race, creed, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, pregnancy, marital status, age, veteran status, medical condition or disability, genetic information, gender identity, or any other protected status under federal, state, or local law.
Equal Opportunity Employer
This employer is required to notify all applicants of their rights pursuant to federal employment laws. For further information, please review the Know Your Rights (https://www.eeoc.gov/poster) notice from the Department of Labor.
