Dr. Chelsea Jones is a Researcher at the Brennan Center for Justice. Her background is in the study of race and racism in public policy, having obtained a Doctorate in Political Science (Race, Ethnicity and Politics) and a Master’s degree in Public Policy and Management at Carnegie Mellon University.
Dr. Jones finds value in the ability to conduct research and translate findings across multiple settings. Her work spans from quantitative analyses in academic publications, to statistical models presented in voting rights court cases, qualitative storytelling in op-eds, and even mixed-methods racial equity analyses conducted on behalf of Mayors and City Council members.
Her 2023 dissertation examined the role of Black sociocultural institutions, namely Black Political Churches, in countermobilizing Black voters against voter suppression. Other previous academic projects have utilized political geography and distance analyses to examine the disparate impact of polling place closures on African Americans after the Shelby County v. Holder ruling.
She’s previously worked for the National League of Cities, where she conducted analyses on local government policies nationwide and trained government employees to apply a critical race lens to their institutional practices. She has also worked as a Congressional fellow for the U.S. House of Representatives and an Equity Specialist with the Texas Health and Human Services Commission. Dr. Jones is an American Political Science Association Minority Fellow, a Eugene V. Cota Robles Fellow, a Mark Hoffenberg Fellow and a Ronald E. McNair Scholar.
