Our Team
We are a multi-disciplinary team of academics and students in law, data science, and social science that conducts research and disseminates data and reports on the Second Chance Gap in expungement and racial disparities in the California criminal justice system pursuant to the Racial Justice Act.
Faculty and Advisors
Colleen Chien
Founder and Director
Colleen V. Chien is a Professor of Law at Berkeley Law School and co-director of the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology where she teaches and researches in the realms of artificial intelligence, patents, and the criminal justice system.
Navid Shaghaghi
Web Tools Manager
Navid Shaghaghi is a lecturer and researcher in the department of Computer Science & Engineering (CSEN) of the School of Engineering, and the department of Information Systems and Analytics (ISA) of the School of Business at Santa Clara University.
William Sundstrom
Faculty Advisor
Dr. William Sundstrom is the Stephen and Patricia Schott Professor of Economics at the Leavey School of Business at Santa Clara University. His research interests include poverty and inequality, the economic history of labor markets, education and related institutions, and the economics of race and gender.
Adam Osmond
Advisor
Adam Osmond, an accountant and data analyst, has spent years collecting and analyzing large public data including criminal data from Connecticut spanning decades. He is passionate about criminal justice reform, as he has witnessed the lasting impact convictions have on the livelihoods of others.
Hithesh Bathala
Advisor
Hithesh Sekhar is a software development engineer at Amazon, an Information Systems M.S. graduate, and alum of the Paper Prisons team who continues to support the project.
Robert Apel
Advisor
Dr. Robert Apel is a criminologist and Professor at Rutgers University-Newark whose research focuses on the intersection of crime, the justice system, and the labor market.
Law & Research Team
Juliette Draper
Law Student
Juliette is a law student at Berkeley Law. She has a background in policy research in the reproductive health and justice space. After law school, Juliette hopes to be a litigator in her hometown of Houston, Texas and wants to do advocacy work in the economic justice space.
Audrey Im
Computer Science
Audrey Im is a backend software engineer working for DoorDash with an interest in public policy, looking to leverage her technical acumen for social good.
Sarah Michelle Varley
Sociology
Sarah Varley, a senior sociology major at UC Berkeley and Regents' and Chancellor's Scholar, aims to attend law school after graduation. After a 15-year hiatus, she returned to school thanks to remote learning and has diverse experience, including running a wolf sanctuary with her fiancé. She continues her work in wolf rescue through her YouTube channel, aspiring to combine animal-assisted healing and criminal justice reform as an attorney.
Alonzo Harvey
Political Science
Alonzo Harvey graduated from UC Berkeley in 2025 and is aspiring to become a crime defense lawyer. A father of three, he balances parenting with his role as a data analyst on the Racial Justice Act team at the Criminal Law and Justice Center, led by Chesa Boudin. Formerly incarcerated, Alonzo's personal growth and commitment to justice drive his efforts in analyzing DA policies to support racial equity in the criminal justice system.
Chau Le
Law Student
Chau is a law student at Berkeley Law. Her legal interests include housing justice and human rights within the criminal legal context. After law school, she hopes to pursue a career in public defense or civil rights litigation on behalf of plaintiffs harmed by the carceral system.
Alivia Dawson
Legal Studies
Alivia Dawson is a third-year undergraduate student intending to study legal studies at UC Berkeley. She is passionate about reducing racial disparities in the criminal justice system and hopes to one day pursue a successful career in law.
Dylan Margolis
Economics & Data Science
Dylan Margolis is a senior at UC Berkeley majoring in Economics and Data Science. He has interest in the intersection between technology and the law, particularly how data science and econometric frameworks can be utilized to improve the efficacy and implementation of the legal system.
Aarav Minocha
Political Science & Philosophy with a minor in Public Policy
Freshman from New York majoring in Political Science and Philosophy at Berkeley. Interested in technology governance as well as how policy can be used to expand access to mental health resources to improve outcomes in the criminal justice field. Hopes to one day go to law school.
Anita Srinivasan
Law
Anita Srinivasan is an LL.M. candidate at UC Berkeley School of Law and a Frédéric Bastiat Fellow at the Mercatus Center, George Mason University. She earned her first law degree from the National Law School of India University, Bangalore. Prior to Berkeley, Anita practiced law in India for a decade, advising on securities, M&A, fintech, and blockchain regulation. Her current research explores AI governance and the regulation of emerging technologies, with a focus on how legal systems can adapt to increasingly agentic AI applications and decentralized architectures.
Tanya Wei
Political Science & Economics
Tanya is a sophomore at UC Berkeley studying Economics and Political Science. She's passionate about the intersection between economics and justice, particularly how expanding rehabilitation and equitable economic policies can empower formerly incarcerated communities. She hopes to build an impactful career in law.
Isabelle Qian
Computer Science, Philosophy, and German
Isabelle is a junior at UC Berkeley majoring in Computer Science, Philosophy, and German and interested in tech law and public policy.
Shanzeh Faheem
Law
Shanzeh Faheem is a third-year law student at Berkeley Law. She is born and raised in Pakistan and now lives in California. She graduated from the University of Southern California with a Bachelor of Science in Public Policy. At Berkeley, Shanzeh is involved with racial justice and immigration advocacy work. To that end, Shanzeh will join the Alameda Public Defender office as a Post-Bar Law Clerk after graduation. Shanzeh hopes to make critical data accessible for incarcerated people and their loved ones at Paper Prisons.
Kelly Tsu
Political Science
Kelly graduated from UC Berkeley in 2024 and is a volunteer on the research team. She currently works in tech and intends to apply to law school where she can utilize and combine her knowledge and experiences for public good.
Tech Team
Nathan Hoffman
Law Student
Nathan is a 3rd year law student at SCU.
