Dr. Niaz Kasravi is a national expert and advocate on criminal justice, social justice, and racial justice, with more than seventeen years of experience leading campaigns across the country – including on police accountability, racial profiling, and death penalty abolition. Dr. Kasravi is the Founder & Director of the Avalan Institute – a research, advocacy & training institute focused on connecting just and objective data to organizations working to create a more fair and effective system of justice. She has previously served as Director of the Criminal Justice Program at the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and Associate for the Domestic Human Rights Program of Amnesty International USA. Dr. Kasravi holds a Ph.D. in Criminology, Law and Society from the University of California, Irvine. In 2000, via a National Science Foundation grant, she traveled to Iran to work with Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi on women’s rights and justice reform.