Founding Director
Elizabeth Hinton is one of the nation’s leading experts on the roots of mass incarceration and enduring inequality in the United States. The Class of 1954 Professor of History, Black Studies, and Law at Yale University, Hinton serves as the founding director of the Yale Institute on Incarceration and Public Safety (YIIPS), a university-based center focused on promoting public safety through education, research, and coalition-building. At Harvard, she is the founding co-director of the Hutchins Center’s Institute on Policing, Incarceration, and Public Safety.
Hinton’s groundbreaking books—From the War on Poverty to the War on Crime and America on Fire—were each named New York Times Notable Books and have become essential texts in policy and social justice circles. A sought-after public intellectual, Hinton’s commentary appears in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, New York Magazine, The Los Angeles Times and beyond. Her research has been supported by the Carnegie Corporation and the Guggenheim, Mellon, and Ford Foundations. Hinton served on the National Academies of Sciences Committee on Reducing Racial Inequalities in the Criminal Justice System and in 2022 was elected to the American Philosophical Society as one of the youngest members in its history. At YIIPS, Hinton is building the infrastructure for a more just and robust democracy—where education is not a privilege, but a cornerstone of public safety.
Executive Director
Yaseen Eldik is the Executive Director of the Yale Institute on Incarceration and Public Safety. An educator, strategist, and community builder, he leads initiatives that advance democratic resilience through education, justice reform, and public policy. At Yale Law School, he has held several leadership roles focused on equity in education. He served as Director of the Legal Academic Pipeline Program, an initiative he launched, and co-led the Dean’s Initiative on Democracy and Dialogue, a special project designed to foster pluralism and civic engagement.
Eldik graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Stony Brook University and earned his J.D. from Harvard Law School. A Truman Scholar and finalist for the Yale Law School Staff Excellence Award, his career includes legal practice at Skadden, Arps and advisory roles for senior leaders in higher education, philanthropy, and the private sector. He was a founding member and inaugural chair of the Gucci Changemakers Council and is a current member of the Gucci Changemakers Collective. Eldik writes on issues of justice, religion, and American civic life, and his work has appeared in The New York Times, including its video op-ed series, as well as other publications.
