Abbie Castiglione brings over a decade of expertise in strategy, finance, operations, and donor engagement to her role as President. Prior to joining DT Institute, Abbie held key leadership roles at the University of Chicago’s Crime Lab and Education Lab, where she was instrumental in transforming a startup into a nationally recognized, multi-million-dollar research and policy institute dedicated to working in partnership with local NGOs and the public sector to design, test, and scale promising interventions to reduce gun violence, advance justice, and improve educational outcomes through evidence-based programs and policies.

As President and previously as Chief of Staff, Director, and Private Donor Partnerships, Abbie built the infrastructure to translate mission into measurable impact, supporting rapid organizational growth and the national expansion of high-impact programs. Her efforts helped redirect hundreds of millions of public-sector dollars toward initiatives like high-dosage tutoring and evidence-based violence prevention programs for youth. Abbie also built strategic partnerships to amplify impact and contributed to fundraising efforts that secured over $20 million in new funding commitments in a single year.

Before her time at the University of Chicago, she worked with a boutique consulting firm in Los Angeles, specializing in data analytics. She also co-founded a data strategy consultancy and taught decision strategy courses in Loyola University’s Baumhart Scholars MBA Program.

Abbie holds an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, an MS in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from California State University, Long Beach, and a BS in Business Management from DePaul University.