Jvani Cabiness

In 2024, Jvani Cabiness joined the University of Chicago Crime Lab Community Violence Intervention Leadership Academy (CVILA) as Chief of Staff. In her role with the CVILA, she supports strategic decision-making, project management, and execution of strategic initiatives to ensure CVI leaders have access to the resources needed to scale. Prior to joining the CVILA team, Jvani served as Chief of Staff for Heartland Alliance’s (HA) READI National Center for Safe Communities. In that role, Jvani collaborated with national and local leaders to develop community violence intervention programs and field-level initiatives. Before transitioning to the READI National team, Jvani led HA’s innovation and field support teams, leveraging the organization’s deep and expansive policy, research, and service delivery experience to promote strategies to advance social, racial, and economic justice. In addition to her domestic experience, Jvani designed and delivered capacity strengthening projects through Johns Hopkins School of Public Health in Botswana, Ethiopia, Guinea Bissau, Indonesia, and Nigeria. Jvani holds a master’s degree in international sustainable development from the University of California, Berkeley and Bachelor’s in sociology from the University of Chicago.