Citizens Crime Commission of New York City


A non-partisan non-profit organization working to make criminal justice
and public safety policies and practices more effective through innovation,
research, and education.

Board & Leadership



Richard M. Aborn
President

Richard M. Aborn is president of the Citizens Crime Commission of New York City, a non-partisan non-profit organization with multidisciplinary expertise that works to improve public safety through innovation. At the Crime Commission, Mr. Aborn advances strategies to improve the justice system, strengthen gun policies and practices, prevent youth gun violence, and prevent cybercrime.

Under Mr. Aborn's leadership, the commission has been instrumental in passage of several laws in New York including legislation to expand the use of DNA evidence to convict the guilty and exonerate the innocent, a comprehensive gun violence reduction package, known as the NY SAFE Act, and legislation increasing the penalty for carrying an illegal loaded firearm in the state.
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Steve Velasquez
Operations Manager

Steve Velasquez is an experienced Operations Manager and has worked extensively in the non-profit and public interest fields for many years. He previously served as the Assistant Director at the Hudson Valley Justice Center and has served as a staff member at My Sisters' Place and Legal Services of the Hudson Valley. Steve received his graduate degree in Public Administration from Mercy College and his bachelor's degree from John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Steve is fully bilingual in English and Spanish and serves as a youth soccer coach for the White Plains Youth Soccer Association.



Katelyn Greco
Program Analyst

As the Program Analyst, Ms. Greco works closely with community-based organizations as well as state and city partners to ensure data quality, data usage and accurate program evaluation. In addition, she contributes to the development and strengthening of tools, curriculums and partnerships to help transform the lives of young people. She has dedicated the past 5 years to working with legally-involved and high-risk youth in multiple capacities such as research, direct service and technical assistance.

Prior to her work with the Crime Commission, Ms. Greco has worked on a national study examining the effects of the juvenile legal system on youth and has been an assistant lab manager for an evaluation study of an evidence-based advocacy intervention for legally-involved girls. In addition to her work with legally-involved youth, she has research experience with LGBTQ identifying youth in the foster care and juvenile legal systems. Over the past two years she has focused her research on institutional betrayal and victimization experienced by legally-involved girls in the legal system, creating a self-report measure to assess such experiences for her master's thesis.

Ms. Greco earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology, with a minor in Criminal Justice from Temple University. She also holds a Master's degree in Applied Psychology, with a focus on human development and social intervention from New York University.



Claire Abrahams
Program Associate, DEEP

Claire received her BA(Hons)/MA Cantab in Politics and International Relations from Trinity College, Cambridge University. Subsequently, she received her MA in International Relations from Columbia University, specializing in Security and Counter Terrorism. Her classes included Modern Urban Terrorism, Terrorism and Counter Terrorism, National Security Strategies of the Middle East, Middle East Conflict and Global Security, Intelligence and Special Operations, and Central Issues in American Foreign Policy. Prior to joining the Citizens Crime Commission, Claire worked with the Eastern District of New York as the Program Director for DEEP (Disruption and Early Engagement Program). As Program Director, Claire worked with EDNY and the FBI as the government's private partner, working on terrorism prevention and early intervention. Claire has presented on terrorism prevention and early intervention at Harvard Law School, the Brookings Institute, the National Counter Terrorism Centre and the American Jewish Committee.



WENDY PRUDENCIO
ASSOCIATE PROGRAM DIRECTOR

As the Associate Program Director, Ms. Prudencio works closely with the Cure Violence sites to develop meaningful pathways towards a better future for their participants. Specifically, she creates tools and partnerships that help young people build skills and experiences that facilitate career-based employment. Prior to joining the Crime Commission, Ms. Prudencio was a Special Assistant for Policy Development at the New York State Department of Labor. In this position she worked on a number of employment initiatives aimed at connecting jobseekers with barriers to employment opportunities.

She has over a decade experience working with community based organizations and local government, serving a widely diverse population, including the elderly, homeless youth, LGBTQ, formerly incarcerated, disconnected youth, farmworkers and immigrants. She has provided technical assistance to numerous community programs, advocated for changes and improvements to outdated social service programs, and has travelled throughout the state doing outreach on the various projects she has worked on. Ms. Prudencio holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Political Science and International Studies, as well as a Master's degree in Social Work and Public Administration.







Richard Aborn, President
» read more about Richard Aborn

BOARD OF DIRECTORS
  • CHAIRPERSON
    Lewis Rice
    Estée Lauder Companies

  • Jennifer Chin
    ASPCA

  • Richard J. Ciecka
    Mutual of America (Ret.)

  • Christina Dugger
    JP Morgan

  • Thomas A. Dunne
    Fordham University (Ret.)

  • Richard Girgenti
    KPMG LLP (Ret.)

  • David Hashmall
    Goodwin Procter (Ret.)

  • Rady Johnson
    Pfizer Inc.

  • Caress Kennedy
    Allied Universal

  • Jerry Meade
    New York Giants

  • Edward Milstein
    Milstein Brothers Capital Partners

  • Keith Puls
    Verizon (Ret.)

  • Lauren Resnick
    BakerHostetler

  • Diego Rodriguez
    NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital

  • J. Brendan Ryan
    Foote, Cone & Belding (Ret.)

  • Stuart Shorenstein
    Cozen O'Connor

  • Edward Stroz
    Stroz Friedberg

  • Benjamin Tucker
    Former Deputy Police Commissioner-NYPD

Learn About Our Initiatives
» Cybercrime Prevention
» Domestic Terrorism Post-9/11
» Large-Capacity Ammunition Magazines
» Mass Shooting Incidents in America
» Project Fast Track
» Predictive Prevention Lab
» Raise the Age to 18
» Social Media Behavior & Real-World
» Consequences

» Youth Gun Violence Prevention
» DNA Databank
» Guns=Prison
» Interstate Strike Force
» Juvenile Justice
» Microstamping

212-608-4700  ·  [email protected] ©2024 Citizens Crime Commission of New York City