Paula Ioanide, PhD
Paula Ioanide is a Qualitative Research Methodologist at the Center for Policing Equity. In this role, she works to ensure that the voices of Black, Brown, and vulnerable community members are centered in recommendations, policy-making, and systemic changes toward public safety redesign.
Paula specializes in qualitative research design, community-engaged research, race and ethnicity studies, and critical prison studies. She uses these skills to empower those in pursuit of racial justice to participate in decision-making processes that create more equitable and just outcomes.
Paula obtained her Ph.D. in History of Consciousness from University of California, Santa Cruz in 2008. Prior to joining CPE, she was a professor at the Center for the Study of Culture, Race & Ethnicity at Ithaca College for fourteen years. Paula is the author of The Emotional Politics of Racism: How Feelings Trump Facts in an Era of Colorblindness (Stanford University Press, 2015), co-editor of Antiracism, Inc.: Why the Way We Talk About Racial Justice Matters (Punctum Books, 2019), among other publications. Her most recent community-engaged research projects focus on homelessness and policing and eliminating systemic barriers to reentry for people returning from jails and/or prisons. Paula holds an Executive Certificate in Reducing Racial and Ethnic Disparities from Georgetown University and founded Decarcerate Tompkins County, a grassroots coalition that successfully fought jail expansion and helped reduce incarceration rates by investing in alternatives to incarceration. Ioanide has taught inside New York state prisons through the Cornell Prison Education Program and is currently serving as a Board Member of the program.