Meet Our Team

Founder & Lead Researcher

Stacie St. Louis, Ph.D.

Dr. Stacie St. Louis is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Justice, Law, Criminology & Security at American University. Her research focuses on the administration of justice, with an emphasis on pretrial justice. With her team of research assistants, Stacie studies decision-making, jail and court operations, and their impacts on individuals and communities. Her work has been published in peer-reviewed journals such as Justice Quarterly, Journal of Criminal Justice, and Criminal Justice and Behavior. Stacie earned her Ph.D. in Criminology and Justice Policy from Northeastern University.

Doctoral Research Assistants

Moriah Sharpe

Moriah Sharpe is a doctoral candidate in justice, law, and criminology at American University. She holds a bachelor's degree in psychology from the University of North Carolina and a master's degree in criminal justice from the University of North Texas. In her research, she employs mixed methods, including econometrics, spatial analysis, survey research, and thematic analysis, to examine issues of procedural justice, intersectional inequality, and human dignity across the criminal justice system.

Eliza Lee Jackson

Eliza Lee "Ellee" Jackson is a PhD student in the department of Justice, Law, Criminology & Security at American University. She holds Bachelor and Master of Science degrees in criminal justice from the University of Tennessee - Chattanooga. Her research interests include corrections, translational criminology, and public perceptions of punishment and crime policies in the United States. Additionally, she has contributed to and published research related to gun violence, wrongful convictions, and perceptions of police use of deadly force.

Sophie Levine

Sophie Levine is a doctoral student in Justice, Law, Criminology, and Security at American University. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Criminal Justice and Philosophy from the University of Delaware. She received the Len Perfetti Memorial Award at the Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice Undergraduate Honors, Awards, and Senior Recognition Ceremony. Sophie’s research interests are in the prevention and aftermath of violence, specifically within families. Her latest research explores filicide and how public perception of offenders differs by gender. 

Undergraduate Research Assistants

Ava Braiter

Ava Braiter is a undergraduate student studying Data Sciences for Justice, Law, and Criminology and Business Administration at American University. She joined Dr. St. Louis’s research team in the summer of 2025 and has contributed to ongoing research on the lasting impacts of cash bail and barriers faced by individuals attending court. She has developed a Python script to scrape court records, utilized R for data analysis, and critically analyzed scholarly literature to support the creation of a survey for bail payers, among other research tasks. Ava is currently pursuing a research paper on cash bail, strain, and gender and plans to present her work at the American Society of Criminology Annual Meeting this fall.

Rian Russell

Rian Russell is an American University Honors Program student studying Data Sciences for Justice, Law, and Criminology and Mathematics. He is also a part of the Capitol Law Institute at Georgetown University. His research interests include everything to do with criminal justice reform, with a focus on making this research accessible and compelling to policymakers and the general public to make systemic change. He is an Advocacy & Policy Intern with the Responsible Business Initiative for Justice, helping educate organizations about topics such as bail system reconstruction, clean slate legislation, and occupational licensing reform in target states. Rian plans to attend law school and become a practicing attorney in the DMV area.

Asa Mentzel

Asa Mentzel is from San Francisco and a Politics, Policy, & Law Scholar at American University. He has a strong focus on criminal law in the pretrial process, motivated by his experience as a Law & Motion Intern with the Alameda Public Defender’s Office in Oakland. He has also had experience with scholarly research and has published articles on California sentencing policy and citizenship in American Samoa through Juris Mentem Law Review. He has an academic interest in using causal inference to understand the importance of early stages of the legal process and is excited to learn more about this field. After university, Asa plans to attend law school and work in the public sector.