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As a researcher at the Institute for Justice, Sanchez conducts research and analysis on issues central to IJ’s mission, including occupational licensing and forfeiture. Her research is featured in Policing for Profit: The Abuse of Civil Asset Forfeiture (3rd ed.). Before joining IJ, Sanchez was a deputy clerk for the Wake County Clerk of Court in North Carolina and a field coordinator at the LIBRE Initiative. She studied political science at North Carolina State University and is a Master of Public Policy student at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth.
Elyse Smith Pohl is a legal research and policy attorney at the Institute for Justice. She brings legal analysis to the social science and policy research developed by IJ’s strategic research team. Her areas of research include forfeiture, occupational licensing and government accountability. Prior to joining IJ, she worked as an attorney in private practice. She earned her law degree from Ave Maria School of Law, her master’s degree in law from the University of Navarre in Spain and her undergraduate degree from the University of Virginia.
Lisa Knepper helps manage the Institute for Justice’s strategic research program, which creates policy and social science research on issues central to IJ’s mission— educational choice, private property rights, economic liberty and free speech. Knepper co-authored the first and second editions of License to Work: A National Study of Burdens from Occupational Licensing, as well as the second and third editions of Policing for Profit: The Abuse of Civil Asset Forfeiture. Her work has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic online, CNN.com and the journal Economic Affairs. Before working as a director of strategic research, Knepper served as IJ’s director of communications. Knepper joined IJ in December 2001 from Hill and Knowlton, a global communications firm. She also worked as a media relations and promotions adviser for entertainment and technology companies and as a program coordinator at the Institute for Humane Studies. Knepper graduated from The Ohio State University.
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