Jenna D'Ottavio

Research Assistant

School of Public Policy

Undergrad Institution:
University of South Dakota

Undergrad Major:
History & English

Hometown:
Westminster, CO

Jenna has a decade of experience at the intersections of technology, policy, and social justice. She weaves together her work in government affairs and legal contracting with phenomenological and structural violence methods to express longitudinal trends to tell stories and make numbers talk. She investigates how violence is bolstered by policy and then reproduced over time, spanning decades – and across spaces, particularly in jails and prisons, schools, and hospitals. In combining these methods, we get policy grounded in a human-centered, community focus.

Jenna is joining the University of Connecticut’s Master in Public Policy (MPP) program and will complete an emphasis in Technology and Criminal Law. She wants to contribute to local youth resentencing laws and further regional and national initiatives related to ending Juvenile Life Without Parole (JLWOP). As a Research Associate, Jenna will be working under Dr Vaughn Crichlow at the Institute for Municipal and Regional Policy (IMRP).