Amber Joy is a PhD candidate in the Department of Sociology at the University of Minnesota and current American Bar Foundation Law & Inequality National Science Foundation Fellow. Her work broadly examines how law, punishment, and gender-based violence impact racially criminalized communities. Drawing upon Critical Legal Studies and Critical Race Feminist Theory, Amber's dissertation work explores how youth experience and make sense of sexual violence in youth detention facilities. She has also worked with Michelle Phelps, interviewing Minneapolis residents about their perceptions of and experiences with local police. Amber also served as a Sexual Assault Victim Advocate in Milwaukee, WI.

Ian Taylor is a proud graduate of the University of Minnesota African American Studies program from which he achieved cum laude latin honors. As a student, he discovered a passion for addressing social inequality, inspiring him to attend the University of Minnesota Law School where he was Lead Articles Editor for the Minnesota Journal of International Law.

His legal career has involved work in criminal and civil rights law. He previously launched a podcast called “Breathless” which provided updates on the prosecution of the Derek Chauvin murder trial as well as a context for law and inequality in Minnesota.

Ian is passionate about contributing to his community through law and education.

Dr. Michelle Phelps is an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Her educational background includes a B.S. in Psychology from the University of California-Berkeley, a M.S. in Sociology from Princeton University and a Ph.D. in Sociology and Social Policy from Princeton University.

Dr. Phelps’ research focuses on the sociology of punishment, focusing on the turn towards mass punishment. Since 2016, she has been studying Minneapolis as a case study of community perceptions of the police, anti-police violence activism, and police reform/transformation. Her work has been published in numerous journals, including Social Problems, Annual Review of Criminology, and Law & Society Review. She also co-wrote Breaking the Pendulum: The Long Struggle Over Criminal Justice.

Keith Mayes, Ph.D., is an associate professor in the Department of African American & African Studies in the College of Liberal Arts at the University of Minnesota.

Mayes is an expert on African American history, primarily from the 1960s to present. He has special expertise on social and political movements and current issues of race and perception.

Mayes is available for media interview on the topics of race in the news, race and perception, Black men, civil rights commemorations, civil rights policies, Black Power Movement (leaders and organizations, e.g., Stokely Carmichael, Black Panther Party), Black History Month, Kwanzaa and other Black holidays, social and racial justice, and policy outcomes of the movements.

Twin Cities Coalition for Justice 4 Jamar is a community group dedicated to the fight for justice for those who have been harmed by police. Founded after the killing by MPD of Jamar Clark, on November 15, 2015, the Coalition has supported the families of victims of police violence and searched for solutions to prevent this violence ever since. In cooperation with many other community groups, we organize peaceful demonstrations and support those who are fighting in courts and committees to get justice for their loved ones. We have seen too much. The community has suffered too much. And the Mayor, the courts, and state legislators continue to allow these abuses of power. We want to take that power back.

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