Steering & Advisory Board
Nina Champion
Nina Champion is a freelance justice consultant and Co-Director of Justice Futures CIC. She was previously Director of the Criminal Justice Alliance. Nina has over 25 years’ experience working in and driving systemic change across the criminal justice system, including evolving ways to meaningfully involve people with lived experience as change-makers. She was inspired by her Churchill Fellowship to co-create a lived experience leadership programme, ELEVATE CJS, and remains on the advisory group.
Anita Dockley
Anita Dockley is Co-Director of Justice Futures CIC, independent researcher and consultant specialising in criminal justice and research impact. She was formerly the research director at the Howard League for Penal Reform. She is a member of the ESRC Grant Assessment Panel and has been a REF panel member in both 2014 and 2021. Some of her recent work has focussed on the relationship between gambling related harms and crime, hope and probation, health in prison and advocates for participatory and creative methodologies.
Rod Earle
Rod Earle is a founder member of British Convict Criminology, a loose supportive group of academics who combine first-hand experience of imprisonment with their wider criminological work. Based at The Open University, Rod previously worked in youth justice and develops teaching and learning materials for students studying for qualifications in health, social care, nursing and social work. Rod sits on The Open University steering group for Student’s in Secure Environments (SiSE), helping to develop and maintain access to Higher Education for people in prison and other secure settings. Rod has worked on advisory boards with the Prison Reform Trust (PRT) and the Howard League for Penal Reform. He has published widely on prison ethnography, convict criminology and the need to develop more robust understandings of racism.
Deirdre Healy
Deirdre Healy is an Associate Professor in Criminology at University College Dublin Sutherland School of Law. Her teaching and research interests include desistance from crime, community sanctions, rehabilitation, white-collar crime, criminological theory and victims’ rights.
Diana Johns
Diana Johns is Associate Professor of Criminology at the University of Melbourne, Australia. Her work explores the effects of criminalisation, the impacts of imprisonment, and the possibilities of restorative and relational justice practices. Diana’s first book was Being and Becoming an Ex-Prisoner (Routledge, 2018). Her latest co-authored book, Co-production and Criminal Justice (Routledge, 2023), considers the perils and promises of power-sharing in criminological research, policymaking and practice.
Shadd Maruna
Professor Shadd Maruna is head of the department of Sociology, Social Policy & Criminology at the University of Liverpool. Previously, he worked as president of the American Society of Criminology and in academic roles at Queens University Belfast, the University of Manchester, the University of Cambridge, and Rutgers University, USA. Shadd’s research focuses on ex-prisoner re-integration, resettlement and desistance from crime. His book Making Good: How Ex-convicts Reform and Rebuild Their Lives (American Psychological Association Books, 2001) was awarded the Outstanding Contribution to Criminology by the American Society of Criminology in 2001.
Fergus McNeill
Fergus McNeill is Professor of Criminology and Social Work at the University of Glasgow where he works in the Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research. Prior to becoming an academic in 1998, Fergus worked for a decade in residential drug rehabilitation and as a criminal justice social worker. Since then, his teaching and his many research projects and publications have examined institutions, cultures and practices of punishment, rehabilitation and reintegration. In 2021, his book ‘Pervasive Punishment: Making sense of mass supervision’ was awarded the European Society of Criminology’s Book Prize. Fergus’s engagement with creative methods of research over the last decade or so has also had the unanticipated effect of enabling him to become an award-winning singer-songwriter. Email: Fergus.McNeill@glasgow.ac.uk
Michael J McCusker
Michael J McCusker is the producer and host of – The Lived Experience Series Podcast multiple author and Community Engagement Manager at The Turnaround Project in Belfast. With 27 years in various sectors, he is a senior leader. Born in Belfast and having lived through the conflict, he gained a unique insight into managing adversity, challenges, and trauma. He initially started as a professional in the fitness industry and then transitioned into marketing, operations, and community engagement. He completed his bachelor’s degree in Sports, Exercise and Leisure from Ulster University. His writing journey began during the global pandemic. Aside from his professional career, he enjoys content creation, fitness, the occasional Guinness, and spending time with his two daughters and partner.
Gemma Morgan
Gemma Morgan is a Senior Lecturer in Criminology at Swansea University and was a 2024 Fulbright Scholar at the Centre of Advancing Correctional Excellence, George Mason University. Gemma’s research centres on desistance, the implementation of evidence-based practices, and the role of digital technology in supporting positive outcomes for people within the criminal justice system. Her work emphasises collaborative, interdisciplinary approaches that bridge the gap between academia and practice. A key focus of her research is co-production and co-design, particularly in developing and implementing innovative digital tools like the My Journey app, which helps individuals desist from crime and aids organisations in providing effective support.
Tasha Cowperthwaite
Tasha Cowperthwaite leads the Criminal Justice Alliance’s Lived Experience Leadership Programme, ELEVATE CJS, which aims to promote the redistribution of power to people with lived experience of the criminal justice system. After an 8-year career in the care sector, supporting individuals through rehab and crisis, Tasha spent just under 5 years working in social housing, including managing community centres and developed Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) programmes and projects to reduce anti-social behaviour and improve community cohesion in areas of high deprivation. She also worked for a charity supporting child survivors of domestic abuse and their families, especially important to Tasha as she was also born in a refuge. Venturing into social enterprise, Tasha specifically develops programmes, projects and courses for young people experiencing the criminal justice system (CJS) to increase their employability, social, and life skills, specifically young people who are experiencing youth criminal exploitation. This includes partnering on the Culture Exchange Programme 2023, led by charity Social Ark, the first of its kind to create national connections and increase opportunities for young people. Tasha is also a mentor with One Million Mentors and an Advisor to HMPPS Brixton’s Employment Advisory Board, utilising all her lived and living experience to create positive change and a more effective system.