Leadership

Kim Babine is the executive director for the Minnesota Department of Public Safety’s Office of Justice Programs (OJP). 

OJP works to reduce crime, support crime victims, improve the criminal justice system, and supports the work of the first-in-the-nation offices of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives and Missing and Murdered Black Women and Girls.

Executive Director Babine joined OJP in 2023 as deputy director of programs where she provided policy, programming and funding oversight for over $100 million in grant funds to over 400 community and government partners. These grants provide direct services to victims of crime, establish innovative prevention programs, and help law enforcement and system partners to improve responses to crime.

Her leadership is guided by nearly 20 years of service in Minnesota state government. She served as the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development’s (DEED) director of government affairs and policy director. She oversaw the agency’s budget and policy planning and served as a critical link on public policy between agency leadership, the Office of the Governor and the Legislature. She gained operational and program management leadership experience in the DEED division that administers employment programs for Minnesotans with disabilities.

Before joining the state executive branch, Executive Director Babine worked in the Minnesota State Senate and the Advocates for Human Rights in Minneapolis. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Luther College in Decorah, Iowa.

Staff

OJP currently has 78 full-time employees, including 16 reimbursement staff, eight crime victim grants staff, 14 justice and community grants staff, five research staff, four community engagement staff, one housing specialist, one training staff, 12 financial and administrative staff, four Crime Victim Justice Unit staff, five Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives Office staff, six Missing and Murdered Black Women and Girls Office staff, one extreme risk protective order staff and one law enforcement staff.