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.
Sarah Seymour
Project Coordinator
s.seymour@northeastern.edu
Sarah Seymour is a public health researcher at Northeastern University School of Law. Her interests focus on the power of policy interventions and social change to improve community mental health outcomes.
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
The Advanced Math and Science Academy, 2020
Claire Buxton
Candidate for B.S. in Health Science, 2021
Amelia Caramadre
Candidate for Juris Doctor, 2021
Tori Cowger
Candidate for PhD in Social Epidemiology at Harvard School of Public Health, 2021
Isabel Kay
Candidate for B.S. in Health Science with Minors in Spanish and Biology, 2021
Beiyu Lin
Candidate for B.S. in Biology, 2021
Jennifer Magana
Candidate for B.S. in Health Science and Business Administration, 2021
Allison McBride
Candidate for MPH at Boston University, 2020
Katie McCreedy
Candidate for B.S in Health Science
with Minor in Journalism, 2021
Sebastian Mendez
Candidate for B.S. in Psychology and Neuroscience, 2019
Louis Miyara
Candidate for Juris Doctor, 2022
Caitlin Scott
Candidate for MPH at Boston University, 2020
Julia Sheenan
Candidate for B.S. in Health Science with Minor in Global Health, 2020
Rafik Wahbi
Candidate for MPH at Boston University, 2020
Sarah Yates
Candidate for B.S. in Health Science
and B.A in International Affairs, 2021
ALUMNI
Daniel D'Lugoff, JD, 2019
Amanda Dolan, JD, 2018
Daniel Espinoza, JD, 2019
Megha Lal Gokals, B.S. in Health Science, 2018
Miranda Jang, JD, 2018
Gaku Lange, B.S. in Health Science, 2018
Mark Martinez, JD, 2018
Amy Romanello, B.S in Neuroscience, 2018
Hannah Park, B.A in Political Science, 2017
Abigail Steiner, B.S. in Health Science, 2021
Maddy Weinstein, B.S. in Mathematics, 2020
John Card, JD, 2019
Brennan Balasubramaniam, B.A in Political Science & Communication Studies, 2020
ADVISORY BOARD
To Be Announced
PARTNERS
FUNDERS
