Bio
I am a Project Manager with YouGov and received my doctorate from Rutgers University. I study American politics, public law, and methodology. More specifically, as a formerly incarcerated individual, I am interested in how the criminal justice system impacts the social identity of those it touches and how that identity is politicized. I am an avid data scientist with particular interests in text analysis, AI and privacy.
I received my BA in political science from the University of Iowa in 2017 with an emphasis in international relations and completed my MA in political science at Iowa State University in 2019 with an emphasis in public policy. My thesis was titled “Felon Disenfranchisement and Political Culture” and looked at the role of political culture in determining the severity of a state’s disenfranchisement policies. Prior to resuming my education, I accumulated fifteen years of administrative and reporting experience across multiple industries, including financial services, sales, production, and transportation.
My
Story
Experiences with the federal justice system
In June 2007, I was indicted in the Northern District of Iowa for a marijuana conspiracy. I accepted a plea agreement a few months later and was convicted of conspiracy to distribute marijuana and conspiracy to commit money laundering resulting in a 108 month sentence in federal prison, and an 8 year term of supervised release after my incarceration.
I was ultimately sent to USF Hazelton in May 2008, and then transferred to FCI Waseca in November of that same year. For the majority of my time at Waseca, I was the production clerk at Waseca Cut and Sew, the institution's UNICOR. I was eligible for RDAP, and completed the program earning a 12 month sentence reduction. Between the twelve month reduction and earned good time, I was released from Waseca on December 18, 2013 after 76 months of incarceration.
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Upon returning home and securing employment, I decided I also wanted to finish my education and enrolled in an online degree program through the University of Iowa in the fall of 2015. After completing my BA there in 2017 and continuing on to complete my Master's at Iowa State University in 2019, it was not until I had been accepted to the PhD program at Rutgers University that the US Probation Office finally requested to terminate my supervised release early. I was discharged from supervised release - and was finally FREE - on April 10, 2019 after nearly 12 years in the federal system. On December 10th, 2024, I successfully defended my doctoral dissertation titled: "Carceral Identity and its Influence on Political Attitudes and Behavior."