{{Short description|American academic administrator}} {{Infobox officeholder |name = Karol Mason |office = 5th President of the John Jay College of Criminal Justice |term_start = August 2017 |term_end = |predecessor = Jeremy Travis |successor = |birth_name = Karol Virginia Mason |birth_date = {{birth date and age|1957|8|20}} |birth_place = Amityville, New York, U.S. |death_date = |death_place = |party = Democratic |education = University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (BA)<br>University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (JD) }} '''Karol Virginia Mason''' is an American attorney, government appointee, and academic administrator, serving as the fifth president of John Jay College of Criminal Justice since August 2017. Formerly, she was an Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Office of Justice Programs in the Obama Administration.<ref name="WSJ01">Vilensky, Mike, [https://www.wsj.com/articles/karol-mason-to-be-next-president-of-john-jay-college-1493584845 "Karol Mason to Be Next President of [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQ_bTJZialA&t=3s John Jay College]" (subscription)], ''Wall Street Journal'', April 30, 2017. Retrieved 2017-05-01.</ref>
==Early life and education== Mason was born in Amityville, New York, on August 20, 1957. She earned a B.A. in mathematics in 1979 at the University of North Carolina and a J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School.<ref name=WP02/> At law school, she lived across the hall from Valerie Jarrett,<ref name=WSJ01/> and was notes editor for the '' '' ''University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform''.<ref name=WP02/> She served for a year as law clerk for Judge John F. Grady in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.<ref name=WP02/>
==Career== Mason was an attorney for nearly three decades at the international Atlanta law firm Alston & Bird, where she headed the public finance group.<ref name=WSJ01/> She was made the firm's first black woman partner in 1990.<ref name=WP02/>
===Obama campaign and administration=== Mason worked on the 2008 Obama campaign on the finance committee raising money in Georgia.<ref name=WP02/> She joined the Obama administration's Justice Department,<ref name=WSJ01/> serving as a deputy associate attorney general from April 2009 to February 2012. After a year back at Alston & Bird,<ref name=WP02/> Mason returned to the Justice Department as head of the Office of Justice Programs (OJP) from 2013 to 2017.<ref name=WP01>Jackman, Tom, and (as guest) Karol Mason, [https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/true-crime/wp/2016/05/04/guest-post-justice-dept-to-alter-its-terminology-for-released-convicts-to-ease-reentry/ "Guest Post: Justice Dept. agency to alter its terminology for released convicts, to ease reentry"], ''Washington Post'', May 4, 2016. Retrieved 2017-05-01.</ref>
Mason was a low five-figure contributor to "Democratic candidates and causes" from 1994 to 2013 and a low four-figure contributor to Republicans over the same period.<ref name=WP02>[http://www.allgov.com/news/appointments-and-resignations/assistant-attorney-general-for-justice-programs-who-is-karol-mason-130303?news=847233 "Assistant Attorney General for Justice Programs: Who is Karol Mason?"], ''Washington Post'', March 03, 2013. Retrieved 2017-05-01.</ref> In 2016, as part of National Reentry Week addressing the challenges of prisoners leaving incarceration, Mason instituted a policy in OJP to "no longer use words such as 'felon' or 'convict' to refer to released prisoners".<ref name=WP01/> Also, noting the 50th anniversary of the landmark Jerry Gault case,<ref>Adler, Margot, [https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=10279166 "Gault Case Changed Juvenile Law"], NPR, May 19, 2007. Retrieved 2017-05-01.</ref> Mason co-wrote a column about juvenile justice and access to legal counsel as part of department efforts.<ref>Jackman, Tom, and (as guests) Karol Mason and Lisa Foster, [https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/true-crime/wp/2016/12/20/guest-post-some-juvenile-defendants-still-denied-justice-through-lack-of-counsel/ "Guest Post: Some juvenile defendants still denied justice through lack of counsel"], ''Washington Post'', December 20, 2016. Retrieved 2017-05-01.</ref> In October, Mason and New York County District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. joined in the National Network of Safe Communities (NNSC) and John Jay's Institute for Innovation in Prosecution (IIP) initiative.<ref>[http://www.jjay.cuny.edu/news/john-jay%E2%80%99s-institute-innovation-prosecution-and-white-house-co-host-roundtable-role-prosecutor "John Jay’s Institute for Innovation in Prosecution and the White House Co-Host a Roundtable on the Role of the Prosecutor"], John Jay College of Criminal Justice Retrieved 2017-05-01.</ref>
===John Jay College=== Mason is the first woman and first African-American to serve as president of John Jay.<ref name=WSJ01/> She succeeded Jeremy Travis, who had served since 2004.<ref name=WSJ01/><ref>{{cite web|url=http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/no00085259.html|title=Jeremy Travis|work=Library of Congress|access-date=26 April 2016}}</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Mason, Karol}} Category:1957 births Category:21st-century American lawyers Category:21st-century African-American lawyers Category:21st-century American women lawyers Category:Living people Category:Obama administration personnel Category:University of Michigan Law School alumni Category:University of North Carolina alumni Category:21st-century American women civil servants Category:Presidents of John Jay College of Criminal Justice Category:Women heads of universities and colleges