Dr. Jennifer Piel

Dr. Jennifer Piel is a forensic psychiatrist and director of the University of Washington Center for Mental Health, Policy, and the Law. She is an advocate for decriminalization of mental illness, appropriate services for people with mental illness and criminal justice involvement, and workforce development for clinicians working with this population. She also promotes the importance of including people with lived experience in care delivery and policymaking on forensic topics. As part of her work, Dr. Piel studies suicide among individuals with recent arrests and is forging new studies and education on ways criminal defense attorneys can be involved in reducing suicide risk among their clients. She also started a Women in Forensics Peer Mentorship Program to support women working in high-security settings as well as an ambassador program at the University of Washington that pairs psychiatry residents with prospective residents and other trainees, particularly people from historically under-represented groups.