Zephi Francis is a Project Director in the School of Public Affairs and an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Sociology at American University. Since 2017, he has been involved in research on treatment court operations, including investigating racial and ethnic disparities in programs. Zephi led the development and deployment of the Racial and Ethnic Disparities (RED) Program Assessment Tool (https://redtool.org/), which is a web-based assessment to assist treatment courts identify and alleviate racial and ethnic disparities in their systems and processes. Currently, he oversees the Racial and Ethnic Disparities Initiative (REDI) funded by the Bureau of Justice Assistance. REDI is a project that utilizes research, policy development, and training and technical assistance (TTA) to work with justice system stakeholders to make treatment courts more inclusive. Zephi’s research has been published in the Drug Court Review, the Journal of Social Work Practice in the Addictions, and Alcoholism Treatment Quarterly. To learn more about his portfolio of projects, please visit Justice Initiatives (/spa/justice-initiatives/).
