The Minnesota Justice Research Center (MNJRC) is an independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to driving meaningful change to Minnesota’s criminal legal system through rigorous and community-centered research, education, and policy development.
We seek a criminal legal system that promotes public safety by being more equitable, accountable, and restorative in delivering justice.
Our organization is made up of individuals with a diverse range of expertise and experience with the criminal legal system including scholars, practitioners, students, survivors, and formerly incarcerated individuals.
Who We Are
MNJRC Staff
Justin Terrell
Executive Director
Community leader with a record of executing successful issue campaigns and is an expert in Criminal Justice and Democracy reform. Justin leads MNJRC’s efforts to build a balanced and rigorous research program aimed at equipping Minnesotans with information and tools needed to transform the punitive criminal legal system.
Will Cooley
Policy Director
Experienced researcher and policy advocate on issues of probation and parole, violence prevention, and policing strategies. Will serves as the lead for MNJRC’s “Re-Imagining Community Supervision in Minnesota” project. Will can be reached at will@mnjrc.org
Mabel Malhotra (She/Hers)
Communications Manager
Digital media specialist and documentary storyteller. Mabel leads MNJRC’s communications and video projects. Her interests include psychology and artistic activism. Mabel can be reached at mabel@mnjrc.org.
Dr. Katie Remington Cunningham (She/Hers)
Research Director
Community-based researcher whose work spans the criminal legal system, youth development, and education. Katie leads MNJRC’s efforts to engage in participatory and collaborative community-led research. Katie can be reached at katie@mnjrc.org
Kayla Richards (She/Hers), Oglala Lakota
Community Impact Director
Social Worker & PhD Student at U of M-Twin Cities, Social Work. Her research interests include the youth criminal legal system as a tool of social control, community and advocacy, workplace culture, and intergroup dynamics. Kayla can be reached at Kayla@mnjrc.org
Alejandro Caceres-Aranda
Policy Assistant
Public policy specialist, 2nd year graduate student from the Humphrey School of Public Affairs. Alejandro supports MNJRC’s policy initiatives and research. Having 3 years of experience working with various nonprofit organizations, state agencies and one lobbying firm. Alejandro’s passions in policy include criminal justice reform advocacy and the collaboration of community led research with local and state governments via the state legislature.
Jana Kooren (She/Hers)
Associate Director
Experienced leader with a deep background in nonprofit management who has dedicated her 20-year career to advancing social justice causes, including criminal justice, democracy, abortion access, and immigrant rights. Jana graduated with a dual Social Justice and French degree from Hamline University. She most recently worked at Minnesota Freedom Fund, and before that, was with the American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota. She currently serves on the Board at ACER (African Career Education & Resource, Inc.
Zeke Caligiuri
Community Engagement Manager
Writer and organizer from South Minneapolis. He authored This is Where I Am (UMN Press, 2016), and contributed to several volumes on the school-to-prison pipeline. Zeke co-founded The Stillwater Writer’s Collective, the first all prisoner-created, all prisoner-run writer’s collective in the country. He is committed to the empowerment and re-humanization of currently and formerly incarcerated human beings. Zeke can be reached at zeke@mnjrc.org
Our Research Steering Committee
The Research Steering Committee (RSC) is a group of researchers who advise on, support, and engage with our work. We are fortunate to have research scientists across varying fields from legal researchers, sociologists/criminologists, other social science researchers, and experts in community-based research working in collaboration with our team.
Dr. Christopher Uggen
Research Steering Committee
Regents Professor, Martindale Chair, and Distinguished McKnight Professor in Sociology, Law, and Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota. Studies crime, law, and inequality from a life course perspective, firm in the belief that sound research can help build a more just and peaceful world.
Dr. Michelle Phelps (She/Her)
Research Steering Committee
Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at the U of MN. Her research is in the sociology of punishment, focusing on the punitive turn in the U.S with primary lines of ongoing research on mass probation, criminal justice transformation, and policing.
Dr. Ebony Ruhland (She/Her)
Research Steering Committee
Associate Professor of Criminology at Rutgers University Newark, School of Criminal Justice. Formerly the research director at the Robina Institute of Criminal Law and Criminal Justice - U of MN Law School. She researches how criminal justice policies and practices impact individuals, families, and communities.
Dr. Robert Stewart (He/Him)
Research Steering Committee
Assistant Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Maryland. He studies the social, political, and collateral consequences of criminal legal involvement and the accumulating effects of criminal records on impacted people and communities.
Dr. Joshua Page (He/Him)
Research Steering Committee
Fink Professor of Liberal Arts at the U of MN, where he serves as Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology and Faculty Affiliate in the Law School. He is currently focusing his studies on the bail bond industry.
Dr. Yohuru Williams
Research Steering Committee
Distinguished University Chair, Professor of History, and Founding Director of the Racial Justice Initiative at the U of St. Thomas
Our Research Team
Our growing team of Research Managers, Assistants, and Consultants are on-the-ground designing evaluations, collecting data, working with partners, and contributing to research products and the creation of educational tools and policies on a project-by-project basis. Our research interns support our Research Director, working across projects.
Anna Hall (she/her)
Project Manager and Research Co-Lead - Pretrial Best Practices
Criminal defense attorney and researcher committed to building a legal system that is equitable and just and honors the dignity of all people. She leads MNJRC's Pretrial Best Practices project.
Dr. Ryan Larson (He/Him)
Research Consultant - Pretrial Best Practices
Assistant Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Hamline University. His research examines the intersections of punishment, crime, and inequality, with a focus on quantitative methodologies and causal inference.
MacKenzie Farrington (She/Her/Hers)
Project Manager - Project PEACE and Block to the Ballot
Public health social worker (MPH, MSW, LGSW) with research interests including
alternatives to the carceral system, violence prevention, disability justice, and community-driven system change. Mackenzie also does research with the UMN Institute on Community Integration and is a crisis advocate at Women's Advocates.
Rudy Perez (He/Him)
Research Team Lead - Project PEACE
PhD student in the Department of Psychology at the University of Minnesota. His research interests include understanding how alternatives to policing and incarceration can improve community safety and improve individual and community health and well-being. In his free time, he enjoys spending time with friends and family, going on walks, cycling, and trying new recipes at home.
Sharin Park (she/her/hers)
Research Manager - Survivors of Sexual Violence Engagement Project
M.S. in Education Policy and Director of Parent Programming at Jeremiah Program, focused on disrupting generational poverty. Research interests include education, gender and racial equity, and professional development within school systems.
Anna Simonton (she/her)
Research Assistant - Pretrial Best Practices
Journalist currently pursuing an MFA in Creative Writing at the University of Minnesota. Her work as a reporter and editor has focused on injustice in the criminal legal system as well as education issues. Previously, she was an Editor and Development Coordinator for The Appeal, and she co-authored a book about a notorious RICO case in Georgia that criminalized educators.
Jenny Debower (she/her)
Research Manager - Canopy Roots Evaluation
Social worker, artist and PhD Student in Social Welfare at Hunter/Graduate Center of City University of New York (now based in MN). Jenny has more than 20 years of experience working in the youth development field, including leadership positions at the Hetrick-Martin Institute, the LGBT Community Center, Mount Sinai Adolescent Health Center, and the Center for Anti-Violence Education.
Michael Hamilton (He/him/his)
Research Assistant - Canopy Roots
Clinical psychology PhD student at Palo Alto University and lead Behavioral Crisis Responder with the Behavior Crisis Response team in Minneapolis. His research interests and experience have been at the intersection between global mental health, human rights violations, and the criminal justice system. Specifically researching the crisis of violence as a public health issue.
Sarah Bussey (she/her)
Research Assistant - Canopy Roots
Co-founder of de-Liberate LLC, private practitioner/supervisor, and adjunct professor at Hunter College, City University of New York. Sarah has worked in various capacities of youth work and community-based healthcare. Her research interests include anti racist clinical and community-based interventions; restorative justice and community healing; health disparities; liberatory supervision; and critical qualitative methods.
Tayla Moore (She/Her)
Research Assistant - Project PEACE
J.D. Candidate, '25, University of Minnesota Law School, MPH Candidate, '25, University of Minnesota School of Public Health, and Fulbright-Nehru Scholar.
Avery Melton-Meaux (they/them)
Research Intern - Survivors of Sexual Violence Engagement Project
Student at Washington University in St. Louis studying English with a Creative Writing focus and Drama. Avery is passionate about telling the untold story of minority groups through creative writing, playwriting, and acting.
Kailee E Schaberg (She/Her/They)
Research Assistant - Project PEACE and Native Defense Evaluation
Sexual and reproductive health justice advocate (MPH-Maternal and Child Health) dedicated to collaboratively building a world where bodily autonomy and safety are fully guaranteed. Kailee is a sexuality health educator and mentor at Annex Teen Clinic and firmly believes that those closest to the issue are those closest to the solution.
Paulina Buitrago (She/Her)
Social Science Research Assistant
LLM graduate from Penn State Law and Bachelor of Laws from the Universidad del Norte in Columbia. She has a background in legal research on topics such as transitional justice, the pretrial process, and the legal liability of the State.
Shannon Halen (She/Her/Hers)
Research Intern
Graduate student at the University of St.Thomas studying counseling psychology. She has a background in leading workshops in jail settings.
MNJRC Alumni
Our alumni have contributed to MNJRC’s research, education, and policy efforts in meaningful ways, from supporting studies and analyzing data to pushing for policy change and uplifting community education. See where they are now!
Amy Dorman
Research Director for the Office of Justice Programs at the Minnesota Department of Public Safety, overseeing research, evaluation, and the Statistical Analysis Center. Amy will earn her PhD from the University of Minnesota in May 2025, with a dissertation analyzing 35 years of intimate partner homicide discourse.
Brieanna Watters
PhD candidate in Sociology at the University of Minnesota, defending her dissertation in spring 2025. Brieanna researches rural and Indigenous justice systems, policing, and governance. She recently partnered with Alaska Legal Services Corporation on the CIVIC project, studying Community Justice Workers' role in access to justice.
Christopher E. Robertson
PhD candidate in sociology at the University of Minnesota. Chris's dissertation explores how racially restrictive covenants shape policing and neighborhood health in Minneapolis. In summer 2025, he will join RAND as a Summer Associate, studying gun violence and community well-being.
