Katie Hill

Katie Hill is the Executive Director of the University of Chicago Crime Lab. She leads the Lab’s efforts to have transformational positive impact on the most pressing and urgent challenges facing cities, particularly gun violence and improving the fairness and effectiveness of the justice system.

A lawyer by training, Katie has two decades of experience working on issues related to education, violence, and public safety, from almost every angle of policy and legal work. Prior joining the Crime Lab, Katie worked in Chicago’s City Hall, advising the mayor on public safety issues and later serving as the First Assistant Corporation Counsel. In both roles, she had significant involvement in critical public safety efforts including the creation of a community-led strategic plan for youth violence prevention and the negotiation of the Chicago police consent decree.

Katie has also worked as both a public defender and a prosecutor, giving her a broad perspective on the criminal legal system and its role in the city’s gun violence challenges. Out of law school, she worked at Impact for Equity, where her work focused on advancing effective public policy solutions for education and criminal justice reform, and as a clerk in the federal judiciary. Immediately prior to joining the Crime Lab, Katie worked as the General Counsel to the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services, the State’s Medicaid Agency, where her work included efforts to secure federal approval for a demonstration waiver to permit Medicaid billing for violence prevention efforts.

Katie graduated from Stanford with a BA in Public Policy, and received her JD from the University of Chicago Law School.