Cyrus Ahalt is a public health and criminal justice researcher in the UCSF Department of Medicine, a Founder and Associate Director of the University of California Criminal Justice & Health Consortium, and Project Lead for the US-European Criminal Justice Innovation Program. He has worked with the Department of Public Health in San Francisco to design and implement a jail-based geriatrics policy for the growing population of older jail inmates, with Departments of Corrections around the country to promote rehabilitation by improving prison living conditions, and with multiple prison facilities to expand access to existing Compassionate Release laws for medically eligible prisoners. In the 2017 legislative session, Mr. Ahalt assisted California State Senators and advocacy organizations in drafting and advancing two criminal justice reform bills. He has contributed research and writing for expert testimony commissioned by the National ACLU, the US Federal Sentencing Commission, and others and has authored textbook chapters for the World Health Organization's Health In Prisons guide and the Encyclopedia of Criminology and Criminal Justice.

Mr. Ahalt's academic work has been published in the New England Journal of Medicine, Annals of Internal Medicine, the American Journal of Public Health, and others. He has published calls for improved data describing correctional healthcare quality and cost; assessed national health data sets for their inclusion of criminal justice-involved populations; and conducted a portfolio review of recent NIH funding to highlight the dearth of research and clinical innovation on behalf of prisoners despite a broader national focus on health disparities.

As Associate Director of the UC Criminal Justice & Health Consortium, Mr. Ahalt coordinates a community of over 150 faculty and graduate students spanning all 10 University of California campuses and more than 20 academic departments to develop evidence-based public health solutions for criminal justice reform. The Consortium serves as a research and policy resource for California state legislators, public agencies, advocates, and community-based organizations engaged in criminal justice reform.

As Project Lead for the US-European Criminal Justice Innovation Program, Mr. Ahalt serves as the primary consultant to Directors of Department of Corrections in multiple states. Through the program, Directors and their teams participate in an immersion program that introduces them to innovative criminal justice policies and systems in Europe and provides technical assistance over the following year to help achieve transformative change in their home jurisdictions.

Mr. Ahalt's previous work in program evaluation includes the assessment of interventions to improve public health and eliminate domestic violence in post-conflict sub-Saharan Africa.