Colby Lenz (any pronouns), Co-Director of Policy and Advocacy, joins UnCommon Law with over 20 years of leadership experience in policy advocacy, community-based research, and grassroots organizing at the intersections of criminalization, incarceration, and gender violence. Most recently, Colby served as the Deputy Director of Policy & Community Research at UCLA’s Center for the Study of Women. Colby co-developed and led the University of California Sentencing Project, a research and advocacy collaborative across prison walls that focuses on race and gender, sentencing policy, and the impacts of long-term sentencing in California. Colby is a co-founder of Survived & Punished, a national organizing project to end the criminalization of survivors of sexual and domestic violence, and a long-term advocate with the California Coalition for Women Prisoners and the Transgender Advocacy Group. Colby’s extensive work in statewide policy coalitions has led to the advancement of key legislation to challenge conditions within California prisons, change sentencing laws, and create more opportunities for release.