Dr. Preeti Chauhan is a Professor of Psychology at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and the Graduate Center at the City University of New York (CUNY). She has been conducting research in the criminal and juvenile legal systems for over 15 years. She co-founded the Data Collaborative for Justice (DCJ; initially called the Misdemeanor Justice Project) at John Jay College in 2013 and served as its Executive Director until 2021. DCJ focused on the front end of the justice system, including lower-level enforcement (e.g., misdemeanors) and pretrial detention to inject data into policy conversations. DCJ's research informed New York City and State policies and operations.

Dr. Chauhan helped develop three special issues focused on lower-level enforcement, in Criminal Justice Policy Review, Journal of Community Psychology, and Criminology, Criminal Justice, Law and Society. Further, Dr. Chauhan works with practitioners to ensure research reaches practitioner audiences by distributing research through newsletters and magazines such as American Prosecuting Association newsletter, International Association of Chiefs of Police, National Association for Public Defense, and National Association of State Judicial Educators. She currently serves on the editorial boards for Law and Human Behavior, Psychology, Public Policy, and the Law, Psychology of Violence, and Journal of Community Psychology.

Dr. Chauhan is recognized as a research and policy expert nationally, evidenced by her membership to the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Law and Justice, Council on Criminal Justice, and New York City – Criminal Justice Agency. She also served on the Science Advisory Group for ThriveNYC and Evaluation of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Community Safety Partnership, University of California – Los Angeles. Dr. Chauhan has received numerous awards, including the Feliks Gross Endowment Award and the Donal E.J. McNarma Junior Faculty Award, and was named a TriBeCa Disruptor Foundation Fellow.

Dr. Chauhan received her PhD in Clinical Psychology from the University of Virginia and her BA and BS from the University of Florida. Before joining the faculty at John Jay College, she completed a pre-doctoral clinical internship at the New York Presbyterian Hospital, Weill Cornell Medical Center.