Justin McDevitt, J.D., M.A. is the director of the Women’s College Partnership (WCP), a college-in-prison collaboration of the University of Notre Dame, Marian University, and the Bard Prison Initiative. He previously served as Assistant Regional Director for Alumni and Reentry Services, helping incarcerated college students prepare for life after graduation and release.

A Ph.D. candidate in political science at Notre Dame, Justin’s research focuses on the political development of the collateral consequences of felony convictions, law and American politics, and higher education in prison in a global context. He is co-editor with Mneesha Gellman of Unlocking Potential: Education in Prison in Comparative Context (Brandeis UP, forthcoming January 2024). He has taught courses in urban politics, racism and American politics, interfaith dialogue, and the history of pandemics in society at Notre Dame and Holy Cross College.

Justin is also the author of several book chapters and law review articles, including “Compromise Is Complicity: Why There Is No Middle Road in the Struggle to Protect Day Laborers in the United States”, which won the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers Annual Law Student Writing Competition (2010) and was published in the ABA Journal of Labor and Employment Law.

Previously, Justin has served as the rector of Stanford Hall and as a cost analyst for KBR in Iraq. He is also co-founder and Executive Director of Life Outside, a not-for-profit organization based in South Bend that helps formerly incarcerated people return to their communities.

His full CV can be seen here.