Education

Doctoral Candidate in Jurisprudence and Social Policy  

August 2017 - present

At the University of California, Berkeley 

Designated Emphasis in Science and Technology Studies

M.P.P./M.A. in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies      

August 2015 - May 2017

from the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University

B.A. in Anthropology/Gender Studies

August 2009 - May 2013

from New College of Florida, the Honors College


Research Interests

State Surveillance, Policing, Black Feminist Theory, Critical Race Theory, Urban Studies, Sociology of Law, Science and Technology Studies


Scholarships, Awards, and Certificates

Graduate Student Fellow 2021

Institute for the Study of Societal Issues

Human Rights By Design Fellow 2021

CITRIS Policy Lab + Tarazz: Technology and Human Rights

Berkeley Empirical Legal Studies Fellow   2020-2021

University of California, Berkeley

Center for Technology, Science, and Policy Fellow 2020

University of California, Berkeley

William P. Heidrich Research Fellow 2019

University of Michigan

Health Policy Research Scholar 2018-2022

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

Best Ph.D. Paper Spring 2018

Howard League for Penal Reform International Conference at the University of Oxford

Isak Kazes Prize in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Spring 2017

Brandeis University

Education in Juvenile Detention Facilities certificate Spring 2017

The Graduate Consortium in Women’s Studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Eli J. Segal Citizen Leader Fellow Spring 2016

Brandeis University

Teaching Fellow Award Spring 2016

Brandeis University


Publications, Presentations, and Panels 

  • Panelist (October 2021) “New Directions in Studying Policing” at the University of California, Berkeley Social Science Matrix.

  • Co-Presenter (August 2021) “I been here longer than you”: How targeted policing creates the conditions for abolition.” American Sociological Association.

  • Publication (June 2020) “Defunding the Police is Not the End Goal. It’s the First Step. Truthout.

  • Presenter (November 2019) “The Spatialization of Blackness: Policing as a Tool of Gentrification.” American Studies Association.

  • Book Review (May 2019). Jezebel Unhinged: Losing the Black Female Body in Religion and Culture. Iowa Journal of Cultural Studies 19(1).

  • Publication (April 2019) Procedural Justice, Legal Estrangement, and the Black People’s Grand Jury. 105 Va. L. Rev.

  • Presenter (March 2019). “The Policing of Black Mothers in the Afterlife of Slavery.” Women’s History Conference. Sarah Lawrence College.

  • Presenter (February 2019). “The Policing of Aggrieved Black Mothers.” Thinking Gender: Feminists Confronting the Carceral State. University of California, Los Angeles.

  • Presenter (November 2018). “The Spatialization of Blackness: Crime Mapping as a Tool for Gentrification.” Society for Utopian Studies: Disruption, Displacement, Disorder. University of California, Berkeley.

  • Presenter (June 2018). “The Contradictory Nature of Dissent in Academia” The Critical Ethnic Studies Association 2018 Conference. University of British Columbia.

  • Presenter (March 2018). “The Spatial Eugenics of Crime.” Redesigning Justice: Promoting civil rights, trust and fairness. University of Oxford.

  • Presenter (April 2017). “Theories on the Surveillance of Mothers on Welfare” State of the Field: A Conference for Emerging Scholars in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. Stony Brook University.

  • Panelist (February 2017): Discussion with author Rebecca Walker on representations of race, gender, and sexuality in the media. Sponsored by Brandeis University.

  • Panelist (June 2016): Discussion on the intersections between race and gender expression. Sponsored by the Dream Unfinished.

  • Panelist (June 2016): Discussion on the depiction of people of color in the media. Sponsored by the Dream Unfinished.

  • Publication McLemore, Brie (February 2016). A New Direction for Juveniles Serving Life Sentences. The Huffington Post. 

Research Experience

Workshop Participant   2021-2022

University of California, Berkeley

  • Selected to be a participant for the Berkeley African and African-American History Writers Workshop

Workshop Participant   Summer 2021

University of California, Berkeley

  • Selected to be a participant for the Global Black Feminisms Summer Lab, which is sponsored by the Black Studies Collaboratory at the University of California, Berkeley

Workshop Participant   February 2020

University of Gdansk, Poland.

  • Selected to be a participant for the “Making Sense of Violence in the Digital Age” study circle, which is sponsored by the Nordic Summer University.

Research Assistant

Supervisor: Dr. Jamie Rowan, Associate Professor at UMass Amherst       Fall 2019 to present

  • Conduct fieldwork for a National Science Foundation funded project on Veteran’s Courts

Graduate Student in Residence Fall 2019 to present

Institute for the Study of Societal Issues at the University of California, Berkeley

  • Provided office space for conducting research on pressing social issues

Law, Culture, and Humanities Workshop Participant March 2019

Carleton University

  • Selected to participate in a graduate student workshop to focus on my research and professional development

Graduate Student Researcher Spring 2018 to present

University of California, Berkeley

Supervisor: Dr. Nikki Jones, Associate Professor

  • Lead manager for a project exploring police and community relations

Graduate Student Researcher Spring 2018

University of California, Berkeley

Supervisor: Dr. Calvin Morrill, Stefan A. Riesenfeld Professor of Law

  • Researcher for a project exploring how low-income communities of color view the law over their life course

Graduate Student Researcher Summer 2018

University of California, Berkeley

Supervisor: Professor Joy Milligan, Assistant Professor

  • Researcher for archival project on the development of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development

Graduate Student Researcher Summer 2018

University of California, Berkeley

Supervisor: Dr. Jonathan Simon, Adrian A. Kagan Professor of Law

  • Researcher for project exploring the evolution of eugenics post-WWII

Graduate Student Researcher Spring 2018

University of California, Berkeley

Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society

  • Developed a literature review documenting police brutality as a public health issue

Research Assistant Fall 2016 to May 2017

Brandeis University

Supervisor: Dr. Laurie Nsiah-Jefferson, Senior Scientist and Senior Lecturer

  • Provide research support, coordination, and innovation for a web-based resource guide on diversity, intersectionality, and public policy

  • Supported curriculum, course development, and pedagogical advancement 

Research Assistant       Fall 2015 to Spring 2016

Brandeis University

Supervisor: Anita Hill, University Professor of Social Policy, Law, and Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies

  • Explored how Title IX can be used to ensure equal access to education for pregnant and parenting students

Editing Experience

Managing Editor   Spring 2021- Present

Qui Parle: Critical Humanities and Social Scientists

  • Organized and oversaw recruitment for the graduate journal at UC Berkeley

  • Supported chief editors and organized communication editors

Editor     Spring 2019 - Present

Qui Parle: Critical Humanities and Social Scientists

  • Worked directly with noted artists, authors, and thinkers to solicit, review, and edit articles


Work Experience

Women’s Leadership Intensive Graduate Coordinator

January 2018 to May 2018

University of California, Berkeley

  • Planning a leadership intensive for women in academia

Community-Safety Intern

June 2017 to December 2017

PolicyLink

  • Outreach to organizations and activists working on alternatives to policing

  • Planning convening for activists in April 2018

  • Wrote memo on community-led alternatives to policing

Crime Policy Intern

Fall 2016 to May 2017

Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  • Explored policies and programs that reduce violence and serve as an alternative to incarceration

Intern

Summer 2016

Center for Constitutional Rights, Executive Director’s Office

  • Combatted the unconstitutional criminalization of LGBTQ individuals

  • Researched the history of the militarization of police

Anti-Racism Advisory Committee Intern      

Fall 2014 to Spring 2015

Boston Public Health Commission, Office of Racial Equity and Health Improvement

  • Researched and evaluated content on racism, racial justice, power dynamics, and systems of oppression

  • Planned and executed educational opportunities to inform public health practitioners of racial inequities

Service Corp Member

City on a Hill Chart Public School; Boston, MA

Fall 2013 to Spring 2014

  • Provided individualized teaching for students

  • Faculty sponsor for LGBTQ Alliance