Agency Leadership Team

Maria Lisi-Murray was appointed as Acting Executive Director of the Justice Center in March of 2024.  In this role, she oversees the agency’s nearly 500 employees across New York State.  Maria joined the Justice Center in 2023 as the Deputy Director for the Office of Audit, Control, and Quality Management.  In that role, she oversaw internal audit, internal controls, and quality management.  

Prior to joining the Justice Center, Maria served as Chief Risk Officer at the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles where she supervised Internal Audit, Internal Controls, the Office of Risk Management, and the Office of Compliance Counsel. 

Maria is an admitted attorney with more than 20 years of private and public litigation experience in both state and federal courts, most recently as an Assistant Attorney General in the Office of the New York Attorney General.  She is also a former police officer/SIU investigator with the City of Binghamton Police Department. 

Maria holds a J.D., magna cum laude, from the Syracuse University College of Law and a bachelor’s in Economics from S.U.N.Y Binghamton.

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Erika brings more than 20 years of public sector experience, with a career rooted in

 collaboration, transformation, and a commitment to continuous learning. Known for her thoughtful leadership and growth mindset, Erika has helped shape high-performing teams and drive strategic change across several state agencies.

Most recently, she served as the Chief Strategic Initiatives Officer at the NYS Thruway Authority, where she led the development of the Authority’s strategic plan and introduced a formal progress reporting structure. Working closely with departments across the organization, she helped define meaningful metrics to track success and established a project management framework to improve oversight of cross-functional initiatives.

Prior to her time at the Thruway Authority, Erika held several leadership roles, including Acting Director of the Business Services Center at the Office of General Services, Acting Executive Deputy CIO at the Office of Information Technology Services, and Deployment Manager for Finance and Accountability at OGS.

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Jessica has over a decade of experience in strategic planning, stakeholder engagement, evaluation, training and technical assistance at the state and federal level in the disability field. Most recently she served as the Director of Strategic Planning and Engagement in the Commissioner’s Office at the Office for People With Developmental Disabilities (OPWDD). In her role, Jessica led the implementation of OPWDD’s Strategic Planning process in collaboration with external stakeholders and the OPWDD leadership team. She also supported other engagement and communication efforts, organizational change management activities, and development and evaluation of strategic initiatives. 

Prior to joining OPWDD, Jessica worked at the New York State Council on Developmental Disabilities (CDD), where she was responsible for managing the implementation and evaluation of federal initiatives for the agency, leading the development of multiple 5-year strategic plans, and working side-by-side with CDD’s Executive Director to update agency processes to create efficiencies, embed DEIA into policies, and improve engagement with community members.

Dr. Pidgeon earned a Ph.D. with distinction, in American Politics and Public Policy from the Rockefeller College of Public Affairs & Policy, and a M.A. with distinction, in Mass Political Behavior at the University of California, Riverside.

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General Counsel Christa Book has been working to protect vulnerable populations for her entire career.  In her current role, Christa oversees several units involved in the agency’s legal functions.   Prior to becoming General Counsel, Christa was the Deputy Director of Incident Management and Investigations.  Additionally, she had an integral role in forming the Justice Center Sexual Abuse Response Team (SART).

Before joining the Justice Center, Christa held positions at the Office for the Prevention of Domestic Violence (OPDV) as well as the District Attorney’s office in Rensselaer County where she served as an Assistant District Attorney and Bureau Chief of the Special Victims Unit. 

Christa received her Juris Doctor and graduated magna cum laude, from Albany Law School and her bachelor’s degree from Towson University.

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