Gabriel S. Oberfield, J.D., M.S.J.
Member of the Fortune Society Board of Directors

Gabriel is a lawyer with graduate training in journalism who joined Fortune’s Board of Directors in 2011. He has served since 2009 as Chief of Staff at the New York City Department for the Aging (DFTA). At DFTA Gabriel coordinates short- and long-term policy initiatives that promote independence, dignity and quality of life for New York City’s older adults and their families through advocacy, education and the delivery of services. Gabriel represents DFTA before the Age Friendly Commission, an internationally recognized body that pursues initiatives and reforms to bolster New York’s strengths as a city in which to grow older.

From 2005 until 2009, Gabriel was as a policy analyst with the Innocence Project, Inc., a national litigation and public policy organization dedicated to exonerating wrongfully convicted people through DNA testing and to reforming the criminal justice system to prevent future injustice.  At the Innocence Project, Gabriel spearheaded a nationwide campaign to improve the quality of forensic evidence employed in criminal proceedings.  His legislative- and executive-branch advocacy and auditing resulted in crime lab reforms across the country. He also uncovered evidence suggesting that unreliable forensic analysis of fires may have affected capital cases in Texas, and crafted laws that permit post-conviction testing of biological evidence.