Gabriela Kirk-Werner (she/her/hers) is a faculty fellow in sociology and a senior research associate in the Center for Policy Research. Her research examines the role of electronic monitoring in local criminal justice reform efforts and the connections between private industry, policy processes and the criminal legal system.

Kirk-Werner's peer-reviewed publications include “The Limits of Expectations and the Minimization of Collateral Consequences: Experiences of Electronic Home Monitoring” in Social Problems, “Layaway Freedom: Coercive Financialization in the Criminal Justice System” in American Journal of Sociology, and other articles in Sociological Forum, Sociological Perspectives, Punishment & Society and RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences.  

Kirk-Werner's research has been supported by the Social Sciences Research Council and the American Society of Criminology’s Ruth Peterson Fellowship for Racial and Ethnic Diversity. She also received a Graduate Student Paper award from the Society for the Study of Social Problems. 

Kirk-Werner received a Ph.D. in sociology at Northwestern University in 2022. She earned a M.A. in sociology from Northwestern University in 2018 and a B.A. (with distinction) in urban studies from the University of Pennsylvania in 2014.