TEAM MEMBERS
STAFF
Leo Beletsky, JD, MPH
Faculty Director
Leo Beletsky is Professor of Law and Health Sciences at Northeastern University. He is also on faculty of the University of California at San Diego School of Medicine.
Leo is an interdisciplinary social epidemiologist who explores the role of law and law enforcement as structural determinants of health. His intervention design and implementation science research focuses on the use of policy interventions to improve population health and equity.
Belinda Bonnen
Lead Organizer
Belinda Bonnen is an activist whose work focuses on racial justice, civic engagement, and alternative transportation. She brings over 15 years of experience in project management, coalition-building, and community organizing through the arts to her work with the Lab.
Jeremiah Goulka, JD
Senior Fellow and Director of Justice Policy
jeremiah@northeastern.edu
Jeremiah Goulka is a criminal justice expert whose passion is in translating research into policy and practice. Prior to joining the Lab, Jeremiah was a freelance consultant and columnist, building on his work at the RAND Corporation. At RAND, he led justice and security research projects for several federal and local agencies. He was a member of the RAND Center for Quality Policing and a professor of criminal justice policy in the Pardee RAND Graduate School. In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, Jeremiah worked with the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Louisiana and the Coast Guard admiral coordinating federal recovery efforts to create a joint local-state-federal task force dedicated to rebuilding and reforming the criminal justice systems in the New Orleans area. Before that, he was a litigator in the Civil Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. Jeremiah clerked for Judge W. Eugene Davis of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Jeremiah has law degrees from the University of Chicago Law School and the University of Edinburgh Law School and is a member of the District of Columbia bar.
Sunyou Kang
Research Administrator
Sunyou Kang is a student at the University of Southern California pursuing a B.S. in Health Promotion & Disease Prevention. Her past and present research experiences center around identifying and rectifying the missteps and misinformation surrounding substance use disorders with the intention of guiding efficient and effective policy change on every level.
Jaime Arredondo Sánchez Lira, PhD, MS
Training & Policy Fellow
Jaime Arredondo Sánchez Lira completed his PhD in Global Public Health at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) and San Diego State University (SDSU). He studied political science and economics at the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de Mexico (ITAM). He worked four years as Chief of Staff for the Ministry of Public Security in the State Government of Quintana Roo, where he gained extensive experience in coordinating federal programs and establishing partnerships with universities. His research focuses on adapting and implementing interventions based on empirical evidence, in order to modify the effects of police practices and the judicial system as risk factors in the spread of diseases (HIV, HCV), particularly among injecting drug users in the border region Mexico - USA. Currently, he is a professor of Drug Policy at CIDE in Mexico. His research seeks to transform the public debate by viewing drug use as a public health issue rather than a public safety issue.
Allison McBride, MPH
Associate Director of Projects and Strategic Planning
Allison McBride is a community-informed activist and researcher. Allison holds an MPH from Boston University School of Public Health.
Prior to joining the Lab, Allison acted as a harm reduction specialist and a community organizer in the Greater Boston Area. Her interests center on implementation science and informing locally-based solutions for the underserved and marginalized.
Sarah Seymour
Director of Projects and Strategic Planning
s.seymour@northeastern.edu
Sarah Seymour is a public health and policy researcher. She draws on her background as a community activist and artist to develop innovative research and outreach strategies. Sarah’s focus at the lab is to create an active and engaging learning environment for student researchers while also leveraging institutional resources to support and empower communities.
Zachary Siegel, MS
Health in Justice Journalism Fellow
Zachary Siegel is a freelance journalist and writer based in Chicago. His writing focuses on the intersection of public health and criminal justice in the context of drugs. His work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Slate, WIRED, New York Magazine, The Daily Beast, VICE, and other outlets. He is also the 2018 Guggenheim Justice Reporting Fellow at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice at the City University of New York and co-host of Narcotica, a new podcast about drugs, informed by science, policy, and the lives of real drug users that navigates complicated debates.
INTERNS
Maddie Bedard
Candidate for B.A. in Public Health at George Washington University, 2024
Claire Buxton
Candidate for B.S. in Cellular and Molecular Biology, 2021
Mackenzie Darling
Candidate for Juris Doctor, 2022
Hannah Marion
Candidate for Juris Doctor and Master of Social Work at the University of North Carolina, 2023
Josh Lopez
Candidate for Juris Doctor at George Washington University, 2022
Tori Cowger
Candidate for PhD in Social Epidemiology at Harvard School of Public Health, 2021
Amelia Caramadre
Candidate for Juris Doctor, 2021
Isabel Kay
Candidate for B.S. in Health Science with Minors in Spanish and Biology, 2021
Morgan Godvin
Candidate for B.A. in Community Health Promotion and Spanish at Portland State University, 2021
Isaiah Martinez
Candidate for B.A. in History at Yale University,
2022
Katie McCreedy
Candidate for B.S./MPH with a minor in Biology at Northeastern University, 2021
Sebastian Mendez
Candidate for M.D. at Renaissance School of Medicine
Louis Miyara
Candidate for Juris Doctor, 2022
Rachel Scheckman
MPH candidate at Boston University School of Public Health, 2021
Caitlin Scott
Candidate for MPH at Boston University, 2020
Aidan Temperino
Candidate for B.A. in Sociology and Politics at Bates College, 2021
Rafik Wahbi, MPH
PhD student at UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, 2025
Sarah Yates
Candidate for B.S. in Health Science
and B.A in International Affairs, 2021
Ari Zlota
Candidate for B.S. in Biochemistry with a Minor in Behavioral Neuroscience, 2023
Alumni
Brennan Balasubramaniam
B.A in Political Science & Communication Studies, 2020
Amanda Dolan, JD
2018
Isabel Kay
Candidate for B.S. in Health Science, 2021
Beiyu Lin
Candidate for B.S. in Biology, 2021
Hannah Park
B.A in Political Science, 2017
Julia Sheenan
B.S. in Health Science , 2020
John Card, JD
2019
Daniel Espinoza, JD
2019
Megha Lal Gokals
B.S. in Health Science, 2018
Jennifer Magana
Candidate for B.S. in Health Science & Business Administration, 2021
Amy Romanello
B.S in Neuroscience, 2018
Abigail Steiner
B.S. in Health Science, 2021
Daniel D'Lugoff, JD
2019
Miranda Jang, JD
2018
Gaku Lange
B.S. in Health Science, 2018
Mark Martinez, JD
2018
Caitlin Scott, JD, MPH
2020
Maddy Weinstein
B.S. in Mathematics, 2020
FUNDERS
PARTNERS
