Will Engelhardt is director of training and technical assistance  for the Justice and Safety Division at the Urban Institute, where he leads projects on behavioral health interventions for people with criminal justice involvement, prison and jail operations, and reentry to the community. He coleads a 30-site process evaluation of the Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Assistance’s Comprehensive Opioid Abuse Program and is a site lead for the Prison Research and Innovation Network. He previously managed the Pay for Success Initiative and Pay for Success Administrative Data projects, providing technical assistance to jurisdictions around alternative financing methods for social services.

Before joining Urban, Engelhardt led the Council of State Governments Justice Center’s county-based initiatives that aim to improve outcomes for people with behavioral health disorders involved with the criminal justice system. He oversaw direct technical assistance to counties via the Bureau of Justice Assistance’s Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Program and the Stepping Up Initiative. Previously, he coordinated the family economic security team at the National Center for Children in Poverty at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, where he collaborated with state policymakers, administrators, and advocates to assess the effectiveness of state work support and safety net programs. Engelhardt was also a senior court report writer for the Fortune Society’s Court Advocacy Program, where he developed court documents on the progress of participants in the Alternatives to Incarceration program. Engelhardt holds a BA from Hampshire College and an MSW from the Hunter College Silberman School of Social Work.