Oren Root is a Senior Fellow at the City University of New York Institute for State and Local Governance, where since 2019 he has been directing a research project concerning the stop and frisk practices of the New York Police Department. From 2007 until 2019, Oren directed the Vera Institute of Justice’s Center on Immigration and Justice. In that role, he oversaw more than $100 million of contracts annually for legal information and representation services for immigrants facing deportation. Previously at Vera, Oren directed a successful alternative to detention for immigrants in deportation proceedings. He has also worked on other police accountability projects and run an alternative to incarceration for young felony offenders. For the first 18 years of his professional career, Oren was a criminal defense lawyer, both as a public defender in the Bronx and in private practice. He has a B.A. from Columbia and a J.D. from Fordham.