James R. Coldren, Jr, Ph.D.

James R. "Chip" Coldren, Jr., is an experienced justice system evaluator with more than 40 years of research and evaluation experience in law enforcement, juvenile justice, and corrections. He is the former director of CNA’s Center for Justice Research and Innovation and has been the project director or advisor for several national technical assistance and training programs.

Prior to his work at CNA, Coldren’s academic career at Governors State University in Illinois included positions as acting assistant provost, director of Sponsored Programs and Research, and program coordinator for the Interdisciplinary Leadership Doctorate and Criminal Justice graduate programs. He served for more than four years as president of the Illinois John Howard Association for Prison Reform. In addition, Coldren served as director of the Center for Research in Law and Justice at the University of Illinois at Chicago, deputy director with the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods for the Harvard University School of Public Health, director of research for the Justice Research and Statistics Association, and director of research at Patuxent Institution, a maximum security prison in Maryland.

Coldren earned a PhD and a Master of Arts in sociology from the University of Chicago, with a research focus on criminal justice data and corrections. His Bachelor of Arts in sociology is from Rutgers University.