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Peter Alonzi Earns Public Service Recognition for Community-Engaged Teaching in Criminal Justice Reform
Peter Alonzi received the Excellence in Public Service Award in April to recognize his commitment to community-engaged teaching and his extraordinary contributions to the University of Virginia’s public mission.
Alonzi, who teaches data science at UVA, has spent over 10 years building enduring partnerships with local criminal justice, mental health, and social service agencies, applying data science and systems thinking for meaningful reform.
The UVA Public Service Award Selection Committee highlighted Alonzi’s capstone project leadership as well as the opportunities he makes available through the Criminal Justice Data Training Initiative, which allows undergraduate students to gain hands-on experience with data in the criminal justice system. The initiative, which received start-up funding through a Jefferson Trust grant, expands on the School of Engineering and Applied Science capstones and is available for students across Grounds, including students at the School of Data Science.
Students analyze data on inmates reentering society; programs that provide alternatives to jail (like mental health treatment and substance use programs); frequent visitors to jail, hospital, or emergency medical services; and disproportionality based on race and other demographic factors.
But long before students work with the data, they gain first-hand experience by shadowing police officers, receiving mental health training, visiting the Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail, and attending policy meetings.
Alonzi stresses the importance of connecting with the owners of the data and understanding the context of its creation and use. “To our students, the jail is not abstract. It is a real place full of real people,” he wrote in his nominee statement. Alonzi’s objective is to kindle students’ ability and passion for community involvement, and it’s the bonds that students make with the community that determines the project’s success.
“By grounding data in lived experience, you prepare students not only to analyze complex systems, but to do so with humility, responsibility, and civic purpose,” wrote Louis Nelson, vice provost for academic outreach in Alonzi’s award letter.
The committee was most impressed with Alonzi’s seamless integration of teaching, research, and service. “You have demonstrated how data science can be both technically excellent and deeply human, advancing public good while shaping a new generation of public-service–minded professionals,” they wrote.
“I am truly honored to receive this recognition,” Alonzi said. “But it is really an award for a community much larger than me. This work takes a team and I'm excited to see what we will accomplish next. In the words of our founding dean ... Onwards!”
