Meg Egan

Margaret (Meg) Egan is an accomplished leader with expertise in strategic systems-level change, with most of her work in community-based public safety solutions, criminal legal system reform centering on decarceration, and improving the conditions of jails and prisons. An advocate for women affected by incarceration and injustice, Meg brings 20 years of experience and expertise to WPA.

Prior to WPA, Meg was Chief Operating Officer at Fountain House working to improve health for people with serious mental illness. She also served as the Executive Director of the New York City Board of Correction, the oversight body for the New York City jail system. Meg served as Vice Chancellor for Human Resources as well as Director of Strategic Initiatives for the City University of New York (CUNY), leading an administrative and academic restructuring to bring the system’s core operations to best in class. She also led the CUNY Institute for State and Local Governance’s (ISLG) work developing systemic reforms for the New York City Department of Correction, which included ISLG’s work with the Independent Commission on New York City Criminal Justice and Incarceration Reform and the plan to close Rikers Island.

Meg served as Assistant Secretary for Public Safety to the New York State Governor, managing the public safety portfolio, overseeing agency operations and implementation of the Governor’s priorities for the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS), the Division of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS), and the State Commission of Correction (SCOC), among others. Margaret has also held positions in Cook County (Chicago) government including director of policy & government affairs to Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart, overseeing jail population reduction strategies, jail conditions reforms, and eviction process reforms, and the acting executive director of the Cook County Justice Advisory Council, where she led the development of criminal justice reform and violence reduction strategies for Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle.

Meg has a juris doctorate from the Loyola University Chicago School of Law, a Master of Arts in Public Policy & Administration from Northwestern University, a Master of Arts in Social Sciences from the University of Chicago, and a BA from the University of Wisconsin.