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.

Morgan Godvin
Research Associate
Morgan Godvin is a drug and justice policy advocate and freelance writer. She is formerly incarcerated for drug-induced homicide and now strives to see a public health approach to substance use implemented nationally. While still an undergraduate student at the OHSU-PSU School of Public Health, she was appointed to the Oregon Alcohol and Drug Policy Commission. Her focus at the Lab is drug-induced homicide, the US-Mexico border, and using justice policy reform as a way to increase civic engagement within marginalized communities.

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. He leads the Lab's SHIELD police training initiative, which connects law enforcement and public health agencies to improve both police and community health and safety during the overdose and coronavirus crises. Previously, he led justice and security research projects for several federal and local agencies at the RAND Corporation, where 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, he served as executive director and co-creator (with the U.S. Attorney and a Coast Guard admiral) of a joint local-state-federal task force that facilitated rebuilding the New Orleans region’s criminal justice systems. He began his career clerking for the Hon. W. Eugene Davis on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and as an attorney at the U.S. Department of Justice. 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 within the Greater Boston Area. While in Louisiana, she coordinated efforts to examine the effects of natural disaster-related trauma on memory and well-being among individuals directly impacted. Her interests center on implementation science, process improvement, 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
Kelsey Melcher Burroughs
Candidate for B.S. in Health Science, 2022
Tori Cowger
Candidate for PhD in Social Epidemiology at Harvard School of Public Health, 2021
Amelia Caramadre
Candidate for Juris Doctor, 2021
Mackenzie Darling
Candidate for Juris Doctor, 2022
Joey Handel
Candidate for B.A. in Political Science, 2021
Isabel Kay
Candidate for B.S. in Health Science with Minors in Spanish and Biology, 2021
Hannah Marion
Candidate for Juris Doctor and Master of Social Work at the University of North Carolina, 2023
Jennifer Magana
Candidate for B.S. in Health Science & Business Administration, 2021
Katie McCreedy
Candidate for B.S./MPH with a minor in Biology at Northeastern University, 2021
Sebastian Mendez
Candidate for M.D. at Stony Brook University Renaissance School of Medicine
Louis Miyara
Candidate for Juris Doctor, 2022
Nikita Murli
Candidate for a B.S. in Cell and Molecular Biology, 2023
Lucas O'Reilly
Candidate for B.A. in International Affairs and B.S. in Environmental Studies, 2023
Sarah Yates
Candidate for B.S. in Health Science
and B.A in International Affairs, 2021
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
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
John Card, JD
2019
Daniel D'Lugoff, JD
2019
Amanda Dolan, JD
2018
Daniel Espinoza, JD
2019
Gaku Lange
B.S. in Health Science, 2018
Miranda Jang, JD
2018
Megha Lal Gokals
B.S. in Health Science, 2018
Beiyu Lin
Candidate for B.S. in Biology, 2021
Isaiah Martinez
Candidate for B.A. in History at Yale University,
2022
Mark Martinez, JD
2018
Hannah Park
B.A in Political Science, 2017
Amy Romanello
B.S in Neuroscience, 2018
Caitlin Scott, JD, MPH
2020
Rachel Scheckman
MPH candidate at Boston University School of Public Health, 2021
Julia Sheenan
B.S. in Health Science , 2020
Abigail Steiner
B.S. in Health Science, 2021
Maddy Weinstein
B.S. in Mathematics, 2020
Amanda Warnock
Candidate for Master of Public Health at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, 2021