Our Staff
Executive Director
Jeffrey Sedgwick, Ph.D.
Executive Director
jsedgwick@jirn.org
Read Bio
Member Services & Outreach Team
Jasmine Engleton, Ph.D.
Research Analyst
jengleton@jirn.org
Read Bio
Susan Smith Howley, J.D.
Project Director, Center for Victim Research
showley@jirn.org
Read Bio
Jason Trask, M.S.
Strategic Communication Associate
jtrask@jirn.org
Read Bio
Karen S. Gennette
Research Associate
kgennette@jirn.org
Shelby Martin
Marketing Coordinator
smartin@jirn.org
Leah Valenti, M.S.
Knowledge Base Administrator
lvalenti@jirn.org
Read Bio
Research Team
Douglas Spence, Ph.D.
Senior Research Fellow
dspence@jirn.org
Read Bio
Katrina Cole, Ph.D.
Research Associate
kcole@jirn.org
Read Bio
Lily Hanrath, Ph.D.
Research Associate
lhanrath@jirn.org
Read Bio
Diba Rouzbahani, Ph.D.
Research Analyst
drouzbahani@jirn.org
Read Bio
Alexa Singer, Ph.D.
Research Associate
asinger@jirn.org
Read Bio
Finance & Administration Team
Audrey Fleming
Director of Finance
afleming@jirn.org
Read Bio
Chalachew Alemu, M.S.
Senior Grant Accountant
calemu@jirn.org
Read Bio
Devorah Braswell
Accounting Specialist
dbraswell@jirn.org
Read Bio
Nicole (Nikki) Thomas
Administrative Coordinator
nthomas@jirn.org
Read Bio
Chalachew Alemu, M.S.
Senior Grant Accountant
Chalachew Alemu joined JIRN staff in January 2019 as a Senior Grant Accountant. He is responsible for all activities related to the management of Federal-funded grants. He received his Master’s of Science in Accounting & Finance from Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia. Before joining JIRN, Chalachew was a manager at a nonprofit accounting consulting firm that dealt with federal government contracts and business organizations. Chalechew has over 15 years of experience in Accounting & Finance. His experience includes serving as a board of directors member for a credit association and a commercial bank and as an instructor for undergraduate accounting and financial management courses.
Devorah Braswell
Accounting Specialist
Devorah Braswell joined the JIRN staff in January 2019 as an Accounting Specialist. She is responsible for processing payroll, bank reconciliation, accounts receivable, and payables. Devorah is completing studies for Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting. Prior to joining JIRN, she worked at Global Express Financial Services as a Staff Accountant and came to JIRN with over 15 years of experience in Accounting.
Katrina Cole, Ph.D.
Research Analyst
Katrina Cole joined JIRN in May 2023 as a Research Analyst. She received her Ph.D. in Criminology and Criminal Justice from the University of Massachusetts Lowell in 2023 and her Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from San Diego State University in 2017. Prior to joining JIRN, she served as a research assistant on multiple U.S. State Department-funded studies to estimate the prevalence of forced labor and human trafficking in different industries in Morocco, Tunisia, and Vietnam. Her past research has focused on sentencing and recidivism of individuals convicted of sexual offenses, the association between sex buying and sexual violence, and public opinion of criminal justice policies related to the commercial sex industry.
Methodologies: Survey design, quantitative analysis, data coding and transformation, multilevel modeling, statistical graphics
Research areas: Sexual violence, sex work, human trafficking, courts and sentencing, public opinion, public policy, prevention
Jasmine Engleton, Ph.D.
Research Analyst
Jasmine Engleton recently joined JIRN in January 2024 as a Research Analyst. She holds a Master of Art in Ecological-Community Psychology and is currently finishing up her doctoral studies in Ecological-Community Psychology at Michigan State University. Before her role at JIRN, Jasmine held evaluation and research positions in diverse areas, including community-based organizations and academia. Most recently, she worked as a graduate research associate with Rebecca Campbell on her OVW Victim Notification Evaluation Project.
Methodologies: Qualitative methods, Logistical and Ordinal regression models, multilevel modeling, trauma-informed interviewing techniques, data collection
Research areas: Gender-based violence, specifically sexual assault and domestic violence, program evaluation such as needs assessments
Audrey Fleming
Director of Finance
Audrey Fleming joined the JIRN staff in October 2016. She holds a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Business with an Accounting Concentration from Strayer University. She is responsible for managing all aspects of the financial and administrative operations of the JIRN. She supports JIRN’s Executive Director in strategizing a path for the Association’s Financial health. Prior to joining JIRN, Audrey worked as an Accounting Manager at the Alliance for Academic and Internal Medicine (AAIM), a non-profit association.
Lily Hanrath, Ph.D.
Research Associate
Lily Hanrath joined JIRN in April 2023 as a Research Associate. She received her Ph.D. in Criminology from The Pennsylvania State University in 2021. Prior to joining JIRN, Lily worked at the Robina Institute of Criminal Law and Criminal Justice, which is housed in University of Minnesota’s law department. She is particularly interested in racial and gender disparity in criminal justice outcomes, actor decision-making, and the interplay between different divisions of the justice system. Her research has been published in academic journals such as Justice Quarterly and Crime & Delinquency as well as in multiple state reports..
Methodologies: Selection models (propensity score models, Heckman analysis, hurdle models); Administrative data merging and analysis; Survey writing and analysis; Content analysis; Risk assessment evaluation
Research areas: Courts & sentencing probation & parole, police, pretrial, race & gender disparity in criminal justice, criminal justice policy
Susan Smith Howley, J.D.
Project Director, Center for Victim Research
Susan Smith Howley joined the JIRN staff in October 2017, becoming the Project Director for the Center for Victim Research. Prior to coming to JIRN, Susan was Director of Public Policy for the National Center for Victims of Crime (NCVC). She has more than twenty-eight years of experience with crime victims issues, including analyzing federal and state legislation regarding the rights and interests of crime victims, exploring the capacity of the crime victim services field and identifying needed areas of improvement, exploring the integration of research and practice in victim services and developing recommendations to foster that integration. She earned her Juris Doctor degree from Georgetown University Law Center.
Expertise: Victims & victimization
Diba Rouzbahani, Ph.D.
Research Analyst
Diba Rouzbahani joined JIRN in May 2023 as Research Analyst. She holds a Master’s of Arts from Rutgers University and is pursuing her Ph.D. in Criminal Justice at the John Jay College-Graduate Center (CUNY). Before her role at JIRN, Diba held research positions in diverse sectors, including nonprofit organizations, philanthropy, and academia. Most Recently, she worked as a graduate research associate at Arnold Ventures.
Methodologies: Time series analysis, discourse analysis, spatial analysis, mixed methods, and storytelling through visualization.
Research areas: Pretrial justice, punishment and inequality, policy and program evaluation, and jail trends.
Jeffrey Sedgwick, Ph.D.
Executive Director
Jeffrey Sedgwick joined JIRN as Executive Director in January 2015, previously serving as Director of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) and Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Justice Programs (OJP). Dr. Sedgwick is responsible for the overall management of JIRN, including administrative functions, program development and implementation, and liaison to other national criminal justice organizations. He provides staff support to JIRN’s Executive Committee and the Association’s members.
Dr. Sedgwick received his MAPA in Public Administration and Public Policy and his Ph.D. in Government and Public Affairs from the University of Virginia. He is Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, where he taught multiple courses, including Policy Analysis and Evaluation and Public Policy. Dr. Sedgwick also co-founded the consulting firm Keswick Advisors, which aids in developing program outcomes and performance measures for various projects, including evaluating youth crime prevention programs funded by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP).
Alexa Singer, Ph.D.
Research Associate
Alexa Singer joined JIRN in June 2023 as a Research Associate. She received her Ph.D. in Criminology and Criminology Justice from Florida State University in 2019. Prior to joining JIRN, she was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Western Carolina University. Her research focuses on local jail related issues, including jail reentry and behavioral health concerns faced by jail detainees including mental health conditions and substance use disorders. In addition to jails, her work has focused on public opinion about criminal justice institutions and policies in a cross-national context.
Methodologies: Program evaluation, data collection, qualitative methods, quantitative methods, mixed methods
Research areas: Local jails, jail reentry, prisons, prisoner reentry, behavioral health conditions, public opinion; cross-national research
Douglas Spence, Ph.D.
Senior Research Fellow
Doug Spence joined JIRN in August 2024 and holds a PhD in Political Science from the University of Tennessee. Prior to joining JIRN, Doug served as a Senior Research Consultant for the Ohio Colleges of Medicine Government Resource Center, a publicly funded health policy research center housed at The Ohio State University. Doug also previously served as the Director of the Office of Research Strategic Planning in the West Virginia Division of Justice and Community Services, which contains the state’s criminal justice statistical analysis center. His research has been published in a variety of disciplines including political science, criminology, psychology, and medicine.
Methodologies: Maximum likelihood estimation; Time-series methods; Data collection and cleaning; Experimental and quasi-experimental designs; Probabilistic data linkage; Statistical process control; Survey estimation; Propensity score matching; Program evaluation
Research areas: Community corrections, recidivism and reentry, racial and ethnic disparities, survey research methods, risk and needs assessment.
Nicole (Nikki) Thomas
Administrative Coordinator
Nicole Thomas joined the JIRN staff in September 2017 as an Administrative Coordinator. Nicole is responsible for monitoring and managing sub-award agreements and audits, conference and in-house meeting logistics, and maintaining membership data. She is currently enrolled at the University of the District of Columbia, pursuing an AA Degree in Business Management. She has over 25 years in the Administrative field. Prior to joining JIRN, she worked at the National Criminal Justice Association (NCJA) as a Staff Associate. She is a member of the Martha’s Table Child Development Center Healthy Start Program.
Jason Trask, M.S.
Strategic Communication Associate
Jason Trask is a Strategic Communication Associate who joined the Justice Research and Statistics Association in October 2000. In that time, he has worked in several positions on various data collection, program evaluation, and training and technical assistance (TTA) projects, including the Weed and Seed Data Center Project and the Bureau of Justice Assistance Center for Program Evaluation and Performance Measurement Project. Currently, Jason works on the Center for Victim Research, Incident-Based Reporting Resource Center, and the State Justice Statistics project, providing technical expertise in various areas. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Administration of Justice from the Pennsylvania State University and a Master of Science in Justice, Law, and Society from American University.
Expertise: Data collection, program evaluation, technology for training & technical assistance, training & technical assistance, strategic communication
Leah Valenti, M.S.
Knowledge Base Administrator
Leah Valenti formally joined JIRN in May of 2023. She completed a practicum with the organization in 2021 while working on her Master’s of Science degree in Library and Information Science. Leah is a PMP-certified Project Manager and Certified Scrum Product Owner with over a decade of experience. She received her MSLIS from The Catholic University of America and her BS in Marketing from Rutgers University.
Expertise: Project management, Scrum, SDLC, management