Vera Institute of Justice

Nina has spent the past two decades designing and conducting research on the human impacts of immigration and criminal justice policy, including in two previous tours at Vera at the Appearance Assistance Program and as the founding director of research for CIJ. Nina’s forthcoming book, Unwelcome Citizens, details how longtime residents of the United States and their families respond to deportation. Her second manuscript (in development), Children of the Crimmigration Era, explores the issues confronting migrant children coming of age in the United States today. Nina was previously a Fulbright Scholar to the Dominican Republic, was recently a visiting fellow at the Zolberg Institute for Migration and Mobility, and has received numerous grants and awards for her research. She has worked in consultation with organizations such as the American Civil Liberties Union, American Bar Association, U.S. Census Bureau, and other government and private entities interested in evidence-based approaches to immigration and policy reform. Nina was previously a professor of criminal justice and anthropology at Rutgers and in the legal studies program at the University of Massachusetts. Nina holds a BA from Bard College and an MA, advanced certificate in ethnographic filmmaking, and PhD in sociocultural anthropology from New York University.