• Fatoumata M. Ceesay
  • Fatoumata M. Ceesay
  • Fatoumata M. "Ceesay" is a doctoral student in the Department of Sociology. Ceesay’s interests in criminal justice encompass both theory-guided empirical research and evidence-based policy and strategy. Her focus areas are incarceration, policing and community safety, behavioral health justice, and racial justice. She is also interested in other issues of democracy, such as felony disenfranchisement and advancing the rights of citizens with felony convictions.

    She received the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship (NSF GRFP) (2020) and was recently awarded an honorable mention for the Ford Predoctoral Fellowship (2023). She also completed a graduate certification in Public Policy at the Edward J. Bloustein School at Rutgers University (2023). She holds a BA in Sociology, with minors in Gender Studies and African American Studies from John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY (2018), where she was also a Ronald E. McNair Scholar.

    Her dissertation will explore the implementation of a single co-responder model (CRM) program in New Jersey and its effect on arrest, use of force, and pre-arrest diversion outcomes for NJ residents experiencing mental health crises, as well as examine the interplay of officers' and suspects' race on referral discretion and outcomes.