Jaspal Bhatia

Jaspal Bhatia is a program officer for AIR’s Equity Initiative. In this role, he helps define and implement the Equity Initiative’s programmatic goals for the Justice in Public Safety and Policing and Educational Equity grant programs, build critical partnerships, and manage three working groups striving to promote equity and reduce harm in policing. In the longer term, work funded under this programmatic area will generate and use research to advance equity in the U.S. criminal-legal system, particularly for equity-seeking communities.

Prior to joining AIR, Bhatia served as the senior manager for justice reform at The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and The Leadership Conference Education Fund, where he executed the team’s programmatic and policy agenda on behalf of a broad coalition of civil and human rights organizations.

Previously, Bhatia worked for The Pew Charitable Trusts, advancing research-driven, evidence-based juvenile justice reforms, and led the project’s efforts to address racial and ethnic disparities within the criminal and juvenile justice systems. He also held positions at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc., and Advancement Project, where he advocated for criminal-legal and education reform policy priorities at the federal, state, and local levels.