Lauren Brinkley-Rubinstein

Lauren Brinkley-Rubinstein, PhD, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Population Health Sciences at Duke University and a nationally recognized scholar whose research examines the health effects of the criminal legal system on individuals, families, and communities. She is a recipient of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), the highest honor conferred by the U.S. government on early-career scientists and engineers. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she co-founded the COVID Prison Project, one of the only national surveillance systems monitoring COVID-19 testing, cases, and deaths in U.S. prisons. Building on this infrastructure, she launched the Third City Project, a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation–funded initiative that aggregates and analyzes publicly available health and health policy data from carceral systems nationwide. She serves as Principal Investigator on multiple NIH- and foundation-funded studies focused on substance use, HIV prevention, mortality, and non-armed first responder programs. In 2022, she was invited to participate in the National Academy of Medicine’s Annual Emerging Leaders Forum and in 2024 she participated in a National Academy of Medicine panel on the importance of implementation science in carceral studies. Her scholarship has been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, ProPublica, CNN, Science, and other major outlets, and she has provided expert consultation to the U.S. Congress on prison standards and data transparency. Dr. Brinkley-Rubinstein’s research program is characterized by a sustained commitment to producing rigorous, policy-relevant evidence aimed at improving health in the context of the criminal legal system.