Our Team

We are a multi-disciplinary team of students, lawyers, data scientists, and social scientists, including several systems-impacted leaders, that conducts research to measure, study, and raise awareness of the Second Chance Gap.

Colleen Chien

Founder and Director

Colleen V. Chien is a Professor of Law, empirical researcher, and founder and director of the Paper Prisons Initiative. From 2013-2015 she served as White House Senior Advisor on Intellectual Property and Innovation and she currently serves as a part-time Senior Counselor to the Department of Commerce Office of General Counsel.

Navid Shaghaghi

Project Manager

Navid Shaghaghi is a lecturer and researcher in the department of Mathematics and Computer Science (MCS) of the College of Arts and Sciences, the departments of Computer Science & Engineering (CSEN) and Bioengineering (BIOE) of the School of Engineering, and the department of Information Systems and Analytics (ISA) of the School of Business at Santa Clara University.

Faculty and Community Experts

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.

Jessica Jackson

Special Advisor

Jessica Jackson is an American human rights attorney and Chief Advocacy Officer at REFORM Alliance. She is also the co-founder of #cut50, a national bipartisan effort aimed at reducing America's incarceration rate. She served as the youngest mayor of the city of Mill Valley.

Ellen Kreitzberg

Faculty Advisor

Ellen Kreitzerg is a Professor of Law Santa Clara University, and renowned expert on death penalty abolition research and advocacy.

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.

Sam Sinyangwe

Advisor

Samuel Sinyangwe, data scientist, is the founder of Mapping Police Violence and the Police Scorecard, where he uses data to address police violence and mass incarceration.

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.

David Ball

Advisor

David Ball is a Professor of Law at Santa Clara Law and a leading cirminal justice scholar. He is currently Co-Chair of the Corrections Committe of the ABA's Criminal Jutice Section and has been an actor, filmaker, and Rhodes scholar.

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.

Jenna Clark

Advisor

Dr. Jenna Clark is a Senior Behavioral Researcher at Duke University’s Center for Advanced Hindsight. She studies how to help people lead happier and healthier lives through behavioral interventions that respect their lived experiences and autonomy.

Jiayu Zhao

Advisor

Jiayu Zhao is a Senior Behavioral Researcher at Duke University’s Center for Advanced Hindsight. Her research interest is to model, explain, and predict decision-making in complex systems and with information feedback delays.

Matthew Stubenberg

Advisor

Matthew Stubenberg is a researcher at Harvard Law School's Access to Justice Lab. He also created the MDExpungement.com website which has generated over 100,000 petitions for expungement.

Law Team

Rachel Nghe

Law Student

Rachel is a third year law student at Santa Clara Law. Prior to law school, she worked at the Department of Justice Antitrust Division and at Dropbox as a legal analyst. She has committed her time in school and in her career to DEI and social justice initiatives. She aims to use her legal, technology, and social sector experience to continue to serve minorities and those in need in her community.

Technology Team: Data Science

Varun Gujarathi

Graduate Student: CSEN

Varun is interested in building great tech in general and helping the community with his engineering skills.

Rutuja Pathade

Graduate Student: MIS

Rutuja is interested in contributing to the community with insights that data brings.

Rohit Rathish

Graduate Alumni: CSEN

Rohit is a Computer Science graduate with skills in Data Analytics and Web development.

Shaunak Chaudhary

Graduate Student: CSEN

Shaunak is passionate about applying his technical as well as entrepreneurial skills to develop innovative solutions that can positively impact society.

Technology Team: Website and Tools

Ju Young Park

Law Student

Ju Park is a 3rd year Part-Time Law student at Santa Clara University. She is also a UX engineer at Google, focused on front-end development.

Max Calcoen

Highschool Fellow

Max is a high school student who is passionate about how technology can promote social justice. He currently attends Head-Royce School in Oakland as a junior.

Nathan Hoffman

Law Student

Nathan is a part time JD candidate with a background in tech who hopes to some day contribute positively to his community via the intersection of law and tech.

Yabo Du

Engineer

Yabo has more than 10 years of experience working in software development & project management. He is focusing on high performance distribution systems, large-scale data processing and Web3 technologies. Yabo also loves SUP, pickle ball and swimming.