Kara Gotsch
Executive Director
Kara Gotsch serves as Executive Director of The Sentencing Project, where she leads strategic efforts to end mass incarceration and advance racial justice across the United States. With decades of criminal legal system reform experience, she oversees the organization’s research, policy advocacy, and public education initiatives addressing extreme sentencing, youth justice, and voting rights for people with felony convictions.
A recognized leader in legislative advocacy and criminal legal reform, Kara has led national coalitions and campaigns that have successfully reduced statutory mandatory minimums, limited racial disparities in imprisonment, and promoted humane, effective justice policies. She authors the policy publication Mass Incarceration and Other Bad Ideas and frequently speaks on national panels, appears in media outlets, and publishes commentary on sentencing policy and system reform.
Previously, her advocacy work included positions at the ACLU’s National Prison Project and the United Methodist Church’s General Board of Church and Society. Gotsch earned her undergraduate degree from Binghamton University and a master’s in public policy from the University of Maryland.
