Who We Are
Our Mission
The Center for Racial & Disability Justice advances racial and disability justice by turning research, legal and policy analysis, and community knowledge into action-ready tools, strategies, and partnerships that make courts, care systems, public institutions, and public life more accessible, accountable, and equitable for disabled people of color and other marginalized communities. Grounded in community knowledge and collective struggle, CRDJ works with partners to translate ideas into strategies, resources, and reforms that expand rights, challenge criminalization and discrimination, and build disabled futures.
Grounding Principles
Our work is grounded in five grounding principles that shape and define our commitment to social justice.
Center Marginalized Voices, Share Power, & Co-Create Change
We center the knowledge, leadership, and lived experience of people most affected by racism, ableism, and other systems of oppression. We believe justice requires more than inclusion; it requires shared power, co-design, and accountability to the communities with whom we work.
Practice Liberatory and Collective Solidarity
We pursue justice through relationship, collaboration, and collective struggle. We work across movements, disciplines, and communities to build the tools, strategies, and partnerships needed to challenge exclusion and move change.
Democratize Access to Law, Knowledge, Data, & Public Institutions
We work to make legal, policy, educational, data systems, and spaces more legible, usable, and accountable to the people they affect. We translate complex systems into tools, resources, and strategies that communities, advocates, practitioners, and institutions can use.
Confront Interlocking Systems of Racism & Ableism
We understand racism and ableism as mutually reinforcing systems that shape law, policy, and everyday life. Our work targets the structural conditions that criminalize, exclude, segregate, and disadvantage disabled people of color and other multiply marginalized communities.
Build Disabled Futures Through Collective Action Towards Transformation
We believe democracy requires more than formal rights. It requires just institutions that are accessible, responsive, and accountable to the people they serve. We work to expand rights, deepen participation in public life, and move systems beyond exclusion toward transformation.
Our Team
Jamelia Morgan (she/her)
Faculty Director
Jamelia Morgan is the founding Faculty Director of the Center for Racial and Disability Justice and a Professor of Law at Northwestern Law. Professor Morgan is an award-winning and acclaimed scholar focusing on issues at the intersection of race, gender, disability, and criminal law and punishment. Her scholarship and teaching examine the development of disability as a legal category in American law, disability and policing, over-criminalization, and the constitutional dimensions of the criminalization of status. She received a B.A. in Political Science and a Master of Arts in Sociology from Stanford University, and her J.D. from Yale Law School.
Kate Caldwell (she/they)
Director of Research & Policy
Dr. Kate Caldwell is the Director of Research & Policy, a role she tackles with gusto as a disabled researcher committed to ensuring policy decisions are informed by marginalized and disenfranchised voices. As a Disability Studies Professor, Kate specialized in interdisciplinary mixed-methods research. She is known for her work on participatory intellectual disability research methods, knowledge translation, and inclusive curriculum and program design. As a leading expert on disability-entrepreneurship, Kate works with policymakers at the Federal, State, and Local levels. She received a B.A. in Psychology from Colby College, a M.A. in Interdisciplinary Social Sciences from the University of Chicago, and a Ph.D. in Disability Studies from UIC.
Jordyn Jensen (she/her)
Community Engagement & Communications Manager
Jordyn Jensen is a disabled leader with expertise spanning urban planning, critical disability studies, special education, and community development. Driven by lived experience, her work focuses on non-punitive crisis response models, the criminalization of disability, and systemic inequities at the intersection of disability, race, and gender. Jordyn holds a B.S. in Applied Learning and Development, an M.Ed. in Special Education, and a master’s portfolio in Critical Disability Studies from The University of Texas at Austin. She is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Urban Planning & Policy at the University of Illinois Chicago.
Dimitri Nesbitt (he/him)
Civic Planning & Design Manager
Dimitri Nesbitt is an urban design, planning, and editorial design practitioner whose work focuses on spatial justice, climate resilience, and the role of design in shaping more equitable environments. At CRDJ, he contributes to research, publications, and program development, exploring how planning, design, culture, and knowledge production can support more inclusive and accessible spaces and systems. He also serves as a City Design Fellow at the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC), where he supports applied urban design education and research. He holds a B.A. in International Studies from the University of Wyoming and both a Master of Urban Planning & Policy and Master of City Design from UIC.
