The Rutgers University School of Criminal Justice proudly welcomes four new faculty members. Their expertise enhances our award‑winning, internationally recognized faculty.

Jedidiah Knode joins us after completing a PhD at Michigan State University in the School of Criminal Justice. His research focuses on the role institutions play in the distribution of inequality across neighborhoods and the criminal justice system, as well as reducing the barriers between research, communities, and practitioners. His work appears in the journals Criminology, Justice Quarterly, Criminology & Public Policy, and Journal of Quantitative Criminology. He recently served as a graduate research fellow at the Michigan Statistical Analysis Center. Jed earned a BS in Psychology at Colorado State University.

Leah Ouellet joins us after completing a PhD in Human Development and Social Policy at Northwestern University. Her research examines punishment, sentencing policy, and broader questions of penal reform and punitive ideas. Focusing particularly on life sentencing practices for youth, her work places a specific emphasis on evidence-based approaches to humane and effective justice policy. She was a National Institute of Justice graduate research fellow and has published in Criminology & Public Policy, Journal of Criminal Justice, and Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice. Leah earned an MS in Criminology and Criminal Justice from Wayne State University and a BA from the Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan.

Nicholas Goldrosen was most recently a postdoctoral scholar with the Pennsylvania Commission on Sentencing and the Criminal Justice Research Center at Penn State. His research broadly examines the exercise of discretion in the criminal legal system, with specific strands focusing on sentencing, law enforcement misconduct, prosecutorial discretion, and criminal justice reform. His work has been published in Justice Quarterly, Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, Journal of Experimental Criminology, and Crime & Delinquency. He received his PhD and MPhil in criminology from the University of Cambridge and his B.A. from Williams College.

Tatiana Padilla earned her PhD in Public Policy from Cornell University, was a postdoctoral fellow at Boston University’s Center for Innovation in Social Science, and most recently served as a T32 NIH fellow at the University of Minnesota’s Population Center. Her research examines how immigration enforcement produces and reinforces inequality across race, ethnicity, and legal status, with implications for health, institutional access, and case outcomes within the legal system. Her work has been published in Social Science & Medicine, International Migration Review, Social Forces, and Law & Social Inquiry. Tatiana earned an MS in Policy Analysis and Management from Cornell University and a BS in Public Affairs from Indiana University.