Elise Simonsen, Phd Email & Phone Number

Dr. Elise Simonsen serves as the Associate Program Director for Behavioral Health and Justice at the National Association of Counties. Prior to joining NACo in 2023, Dr. Simonsen worked at the National Governors Association as a Senior Policy Analyst where she provided research, policy analysis, and technical assistance to governors and senior state officials across a range of public safety and criminal justice issues, including broad criminal justice reform from pretrial to reentry, juvenile justice, probation and parole, stimulants and polysubstance use, and impaired driving and traffic safety. In this role, she operated a national network of governors' criminal justice policy advisors.Prior to NGA, Dr. Simonsen worked in academia. She served as an instructor at two higher education institutions in Florida. During her academic career, she was a principle investigator on multiple data collection efforts, including one for a government agency. Her data collection has ranged from student samples across universities to evaluating program implementation for a police department. While at NGA, she has continued data collection efforts on executive-level criminal justice priorities, state opioid data sources, and preventing targeted violence. Dr. Simonsen’s published work includes topics such as gangs, substance use, childhood antisocial behavior, gubernatorial criminal justice priorities, and state-level opioid data.