INDIANAPOLIS, IN – Eric Grommon, an associate professor at the O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs, has been named the interim director of the Center for Health and Justice Research at the Indiana University Public Policy Institute.
Grommon joined the criminal justice faculty at the O’Neill School at IUPUI in 2012 and has served as a senior affiliate with PPI since 2016. He received his doctorate in criminal justice from Michigan State University.
CHJR works with public safety agencies and social services organizations to conduct impartial applied research on criminal justice and public safety issues.
“The work CHJR does is critical to helping local policymakers transform the ways in which we address criminal justice and public safety issues in our community,” said Grommon, who also leads a CHJR partnership with the Indianapolis Office of Public Health and Safety on best practices. “It’s critically important that we continue to evaluate innovative methods for handling these problems, and I’m excited to be leading a team committed to that task.”
The CHJR team has done extensive work on Marion County’s opioid epidemic and overdose deaths, violence prevention and crime-reduction strategies, and evaluations of reentry housing programs, pretrial risk assessment pilot programs, and Indianapolis’ Mobile Crisis Assistance team.
Grommon’s research focuses on corrections, reentry programs, and evaluating the justice system. His evaluations have been nominated for and included in CrimeSolutions.gov, a national clearinghouse of best and emerging justice system practices.
“Eric has been a valuable member of our team at the Public Policy Institute and his background makes him uniquely qualified to lead the center,” said PPI Director Tom Guevara. “He has spent his career researching some of our most complex social problems and his experience in these areas will be invaluable for the Center for Health and Justice Research.”
Grommon replaces Brad Ray, who left PPI in July to become the Director of the Center for Behavioral Health and Justice at the Wayne State University.
