Program Associate, Thurgood Marshall Institute

The NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF) is the country’s first and foremost civil and human rights law organization. Founded in 1940 under the leadership of Thurgood Marshall, who subsequently became the first Black U.S. Supreme Court Justice, LDF was launched at a time when the nation’s aspirations for equality and due process of law were stifled by widespread state-sponsored racial inequality. From that era to the present, LDF’s mission has been transformative — to achieve racial justice, equality, and an inclusive society.

LDF’s litigation, public policy advocacy, and public education programs in the substantive areas of criminal justice, economic justice, education, and political participation seek to ensure the fundamental and basic human rights of all people to quality education, economic opportunity, the right to vote and fully participate in democracy, and the right to a fair and just judicial system. LDF continues to make an impact in the area of public service and was recognized by Fast Company as one of its 2023 Brands That Matter under its public service category.

The Thurgood Marshall Institute

Since its founding under the leadership of Thurgood Marshall in 1940, LDF has been committed to transforming this nation’s promise of equality into reality for all Americans. In 2015, LDF celebrated its 75th anniversary with the launch of the Thurgood Marshall Institute (TMI). The Institute is a collaborative research and archival hub within LDF that combines a multidisciplinary approach to advocacy with LDF’s traditional litigation strengths to advance a modern vision of racial justice. The Institute’s goals are to enhance LDF’s use and mobilization of research, archives, and public education to increase its capacity to fight for racial equity, justice, and a more inclusive democracy through targeted advocacy and high-impact communications campaigns.

Through TMI, LDF generates and integrates innovative research, advocacy, archival materials, and strategic communications aimed at educating the public and key decision-makers. This added capacity leverages LDF’s litigation expertise, advocacy experience, and unique leadership role on matters of race, law, and policy to shape the narrative on racial justice and equity. Through targeted campaigns that attack entrenched problems of racial bias, TMI advances holistic strategies to achieve obtainable and lasting solutions on issues of criminal justice, political participation, education, and economic opportunity. In addition, the Institute serves as an active convener of thought-leaders from various disciplines to engage on cutting-edge issues of racial justice in both public and private fora.

In 2024, TMI launched LDF Recollection: A Civil Rights Legal Archive. The website contains stories and primary source materials documenting the history of LDF and the Civil Rights Movement in the U.S. This initiative represents a significant milestone in LDF’s mission to preserve and promote our legacy of civil rights, activism, and advocacy. The core of the website is a searchable digital collection with over 12,000 legal documents, letters, photographs, press releases, original oral history interviews, and other materials from the LDF Archives. The archivists’ work is ongoing as they actively survey, arrange, describe, and digitize select records from LDF’s collection of over 8,000 boxes and multiple terabytes of born-digital records. Their workflow also includes a final step in which the team’s Archives Counsel reviews digitized documents to ensure they do not contain privileged, confidential, or sensitive information.

The NAACP Legal Defense Fund’s Thurgood Marshall Institute (TMI) seeks an experienced, dynamic, and innovative Program Associate. The Program Associate will report to the Deputy Director of the Thurgood Marshall Institute and will work out of the Atlanta, New York, or Washington, D.C. office.

LDF operates in a hybrid work environment where employees are expected to be in the office a minimum of two days per week, unless otherwise indicated.

Responsibilities:

The TMI Program Associate will assist LDF’s Thurgood Marshall Institute research team in advancing LDF’s strategic priorities, as well as its broader legal program and institutional goals, including, but not limited to the following:

• Lead day-to-day project management for TMI Research publications, overseeing workflows for briefs and reports and coordinating across departments with LDF colleagues.
• Provide administrative support to Thurgood Marshall Institute leadership to advance the work of the entire department.
• Assist in planning Thurgood Marshall Institute Department events and activities, including retreats, labs, internal LDF meetings, convenings, and conferences. Includes working with TMI Director, Deputy Director, and Senior Researchers to plan and execute biannual Labs, tasks of which may include attendee recruitment, agenda-setting, project planning, measuring key milestones, and cross-team collaboration.
• Facilitate internal and external calls, meetings, conferences, and other convenings, including agenda preparation, note-taking, and tracking action items, decision logs, and follow-up management.
• Conduct factual research on specific social science research questions as directed under the supervision of Thurgood Marshall Institute Research staff.
• Organize materials for speaking engagements, seminars, symposia, and conferences, and assist in preparation of institutional statements, remarks, or speeches on behalf of members of the research team.
• Manage, order, and distribute all TMI Research printed publications, including tracking the location of publications and managing the print budget.
• Co-lead in recruitment for TMI Undergraduate Research Fellows.
• Co-manage database of federal grant funding and transferring military equipment to local law enforcement agencies, and write police misconduct settlement summaries for the National Police Funding Database.
• Manage and maintain TMI’s online research platforms.
• Maintain and regularly update the TMI Research team and departmental policy manuals to ensure accuracy, accessibility, and alignment with organizational practices.
• Lead cite-checking and fact-checking of TMI publications to ensure factual accuracy, source verification, and compliance with Bluebook citation standards.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

Qualifications:

• Demonstrated commitment to LDF’s racial justice mission;
• Bachelor’s degree required; preferred degree in a relevant social science field.
• Minimum of 5 years of relevant experience;
• Highly motivated and takes initiative;
• Outstanding research and writing skills;
• Excellent administrative, clerical, and organizational skills;
• Superb computer skills; Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Westlaw, Lexis, and familiarity with database systems and project management software a plus;
• Excellent writing, communication, and interpersonal skills with attention to detail
• Ability to multitask as a team player in a fast-paced work environment;
• Ability to prioritize workload and complete tasks accurately and in a timely manner;
• Willingness to work overtime, including occasionally on weekends;
• Willingness to travel;
• Preferred: Paralegal, project management, or equivalent work experience.

The salary range for this position is:

New York: $57,600 - $65,000

Washington, D.C.: $55,200 - $61,945

Atlanta: $49,600 - $54,470

This is not an exhaustive list of all responsibilities, duties, skills, efforts, requirements, or working conditions associated with the job. While this is intended to be an accurate reflection of the current job, management reserves the right to revise the job or to require that other or different tasks be performed as assigned. This description does not constitute a contract of employment, and LDF may exercise its employment-at-will rights at any time.

LDF offers all eligible employees a generous benefits package. To learn more, click the following link 2026 Benefits Overview.

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The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer. We are committed to providing equal employment opportunities to you without regard to race, creed, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, pregnancy, marital status, age, veteran status, medical condition or disability, genetic information, gender identity, or any other protected status under federal, state, or local law.