Maria Valdovinos Olson

Ms. Valdovinos Olson is a Senior Research Associate for the Police Foundation, where she works on a portfolio of domestic and international projects in law enforcement and criminal justice. She is an experienced researcher and project manager with ten years of experience working to advance a diverse portfolio of federally and privately funded, multi-year research projects and initiatives in policing and corrections research across support, management, and leadership capacities.

Current projects span the areas of safety and wellness within police and corrections, community policing in the United States and Mexico, and the impact of a procedural justice intervention on crime hotspots and police legitimacy. Ms. Valdovinos Olson has also worked in the areas of unmanned technologies for public safety, eyewitness identification procedures, critical incident reviews within corrections, and targeted violence on college campuses.

Ms. Valdovinos Olson earned her B.A. from Northwestern University, has an M.A. in Sociology from George Mason University and is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in Sociology. Her research interests are in the role of police in society, criminal justice/legal system reform, and reentry policy. She is a fluent Spanish speaker and has language proficiency in German and modern standard Arabic.