Jacob Albert currently works as a program manager for Youth Diversion with the LA County Department of Youth Development (DYD), which offers service-based alternatives to incarceration for youth and young adults. Prior to this position, he worked as the training coordinator for the Urban Peace Institute, where he designed and managed trainings for local and national gang interventionists, law enforcement personnel, service providers, and others involved in alternative approaches to reducing community-based violence. Before that, he served as associate director of Employment Services at Homeboy Industries, where gang-involved and previously incarcerated individuals received services and other supports toward employment.
Jacob enrolled in LMU's Ed.D. program to bolster his understanding of the work and history of social justice, as well as enhancing his training and service provision skills within the fields of youth diversion, gang intervention, and prison reentry. The knowledge and skills gained within the program have helped to deepen his commitment to social justice-based work in support of efforts to increase the safety and empowerment of traditionally marginalized groups and communities.
Jacob's dissertation examined the impact that effective employment-based interventions (including services, programs, and other supports) can offer individuals who are desisting from gang-involvement. Research for the study involved individuals and organizations engaged in the work of gang desistance through service provision and employment in cities including Chicago, Los Angeles and San Diego. Jacob’s research focused on three key areas: criticality of and prompts for gang desistance; identification of effective interventions to support desisting individuals, and the qualities that make service providers and organizations effective in the work of gang desistance.
Having been involved in social justice-based work for many years, LMU's Ed.D. program provided Jacob with a deeper knowledge of this work's criticality as well as a grounding in the history and concepts of social justice. This knowledge has helped to both confirm the value and impact of social justice work and enhance his ability to support those individuals and communities seeking peace, safety, and empowerment.