Mariel Delacruz (she/her/ella) is a third-year Criminal Justice Ph.D. scholar at Temple University. She is a North Philadelphia native and was born to Dominican parents. She is the first to obtain higher education degrees in her family. She obtained a Bachelor of Arts in Criminology, Psychology and Sociology from Cabrini University and a Master of Arts degree in Criminal Justice from Rutgers University-Camden. While obtaining her master’s degree, she co-authored and published in the Journal of Interpersonal Violence. Before coming to Temple, Mariel dedicated her time to teaching as an adjunct and has held several positions in direct services, advocacy, policy, and research.

Mariel’s interests focus on critical criminology, community-based participatory research, victimization, wrongful convictions, policy, youth, and young adults. Mariel’s goals, both in academia and in her applied work, is to center and uplift the voices and experiences of Black, brown and communities of color. Mariel is a co-founder and committee member of the newly established New Jersey Innocence Project affiliated with the Rutgers-Camden Law School.

Faculty Advisor: Dr. Jeffrey Ward