Colleen Kristich is Senior Community Researcher at PPG who helps partner organizations advance their public policy goals by providing research and advocacy support. She is a licensed master social worker by training and holds an MSW from the University at Buffalo and undergraduate degrees in psychology and environmental biology from Houghton College. In 2020 she co-founded Free the People WNY, a coalition focused on ending mass incarceration.  Her areas of focus have included improving language access in government services, reimagining public safety responses to behavioral health, examining local budgets, and conducting studies on money bail and safe and healthy housing.