I work with cities and organizations to develop effective strategies for reducing violence and enhancing community safety
Marina González
Magaña
Expert in Violence Prevention, Policy Innovation, and Community Safety
Marina Gonzalez Magana is an expert in violence prevention with extensive experience working at the intersection of policy, research, and community engagement in the U.S. and Mexico. She has dedicated her career to building safer communities by collaborating with city governments, law enforcement agencies, and NGOs to reduce gun violence, enhance community outcomes, and foster trust between police and citizens.
Marina has dedicated her career to building safer communities by collaborating with city governments, law enforcement agencies, and NGOs to reduce gun violence, enhance community outcomes, and foster trust between police and citizens.
Currently, as Senior Program Manager at the Crime and Justice Policy Lab at the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn), following the integration of the California Partnership for Safe Communities, Marina plays a key role in developing strategies and initiatives to support cities such as Baltimore, Oakland, Bakersfield, and San Francisco. She leads the groundbreaking research of the Key Capacity Framework—a project funded by Pew Charitable Trusts that identifies critical capacities for sustainably reducing community violence across the U.S. She also spearheads a multi-year research and policy agenda funded by The Joyce Foundation.
In addition, Marina is part of the Community Violence Intervention and Prevention Initiative (CVIPI) Center funded by the Department of Justice, where she collaborates with the Urban Institute, NICJR, and Johns Hopkins University to support community violence intervention programs nationwide.
Before joining CPSC, Marina worked as the Policy and Implementation Manager at Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA), where she led initiatives aimed at transforming police organizations in Mexico. In partnership with Yale University and the Mexican Government, her work included implementing violence reduction strategies such as Ceasefire in Mexico City, Procedural Justice training, and the National Model of Citizen Security.
Marina, a passionate advocate for crime prevention through environmental design, co-funded Sustrato.
Sustrato is a non-profit organization that partners with disenfranchised communities historically targeted by top-down development. Traditional approaches often overlook the abundance of local knowledge and leadership, resulting in externally driven projects that are difficult to sustain, improve, or embrace. In response, Sustrato has developed a context-specific methodology that supports communities in designing and implementing their public space projects—while also training local leaders to become designers, builders, and stewards of these shared spaces.
Marina is a fellow of the Organization of American States’ Open Government Fellowship and served as a facilitator at the Dalai Lama Center for Ethics at MIT. She holds a master’s degree in Criminology and Criminal Justice from the University of Glasgow, where she was awarded the Chevening Scholarship for her specialization in police culture. Marina earned her bachelor's in political science and public administration at ITESO University and a crime prevention diploma from IBERO University.
Publications and Collaborations
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Projects
Technical and Training Advisory in Cities to reduce homicides
The California Partneship for Safe Communities partner with stakeholders to create systematic changes inside cities. From policing, to community violence intervention, to how mayors and city executives manage their agencies and work with community stakeholders – no community is the same after our partnership.
Who we work with: community leaders, elected officials, people affected by violence, researchers, police and community members.
From policing, to community violence intervention, to how mayors and city executives manage their agencies and work with community stakeholders – no community is the same after our partnership.
Who we work with: community leaders, elected officials, people affected by violence, researchers, police and community members.
Key capacities to reduce community violence
Community violence prevention is a growing field within public safety, aimed at reducing and preventing lethal and non-lethal violence. Despite increased awareness, investment, and political support in the US, many cities still struggle to sustainably reduce violence. Supported by The Pew Charitable Trusts, the CPSC collaborated with field experts across the Country to identify six key capacities essential for reducing violence at the city level: political governance and public sector leadership, data-informed problem analysis, cross-sector collaboration on a shared strategy, effective operational management, robust violence reduction infrastructure, and sustainability planning and institutionalization. Marina, the research leader of this initiative, helped test these capacities in cities like Baltimore, Los Angeles, and Philadelphia, revealing that cities with stronger governance, sustained funding, and robust management were more successful in achieving long-term violence reduction.
Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design
CPTED, reduces crime by designing physical spaces to deter criminal behavior through strategies such as increasing visibility (natural surveillance), defining public and private areas (territorial reinforcement), controlling access points, and maintaining environments. These elements help create safer communities by making areas less appealing to offenders and enhancing public safety. Marina has extensive experience in this field and has collaborated through various organizations, including Sustrato, which she co-founded. Sustrato works with disenfranchised communities to co-design public space projects and train local leaders as designers, builders, and stewards of their environments. For more information, visit:
Open Government - Open Data
Mapatón CDMX emerged as a collaborative effort between various government and non-profit organizations, with the goal of creating an open, standardized, and systematic database of public transportation routes in Mexico City. Marina served as the program manager and facilitator of the collaborative working group, playing a key role in guiding the project. Through innovative citizen participation, the initiative used gamification and a mobile app to collect detailed data on the routes, stops, schedules, and fares of buses, minibuses, and vans. From January 29 to February 14, 2016, 3,624 participants, organized into 690 teams, mapped 4,110 routes, of which 2,765 met the established criteria.
Mapatón wasn’t just about data—it was a testament to the power of collaboration between government and civil society. Over the course of a year, organizations donated more than 7,000 hours of time and effort. In just 17 days, 286 users mapped 51,308 kilometers of public transportation routes—equivalent to 1.2 laps around the Earth. Altogether, their contributions totaled 685,188 minutes, or nearly 1.3 years of mapping time, resulting in a transformative impact on transportation data in Mexico City.