Lecturer Bios
Chris Alexander
Chris Alexander is a policy coordinator with the New York Policy Office of the Drug Policy Alliance. As policy coordinator, Chris works to support forward-thinking policies and organizes community groups to pass legislation to end marijuana prohibition in New York State. Chris is a native of Queens, New York, and comes to DPA with legislative and community organizing experience that he utilizes in the fight to end mass incarceration and the drug war. Chris is an advocate for social justice, racial equity and a champion for civic engagement. He received his BA in political science from Syracuse University.
Malik Burnett, MD, MBA, MPH
Malik Burnett, MD, MBA, MPH is a physician advocate and entrepreneur, working to advance drug policy reform away from one based on criminal justice and towards one based on public health. As policy manager of Drug Policy Alliance, he successfully co-chaired the Initiative 71 campaign, a ballot measure that legalized cannabis in Washington, DC. He continues to consult with state and local governments through the advocacy organization Doctors for Cannabis Regulation and provides consulting services to legal cannabis business through his firm Prevision Strategies and Analytics in addition to founding and managing a number of plant touching cannabis operations. Dr. Burnett is originally from Montego Bay, Jamaica by way of Atlanta, GA. His passion for drug
policy is rooted in solving the racial disparities, which exist in drug enforcement practices. Dr. Burnett attended Duke University where he completed a medical degree and masters in business administration. He earned his MPH from John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Senator Liz Krueger
Senator Liz Krueger (Democrat, 28th Senate District) is currently the ranking minority member of the Senate Finance Committee and a member of the Codes, Elections, Higher Education, Housing, Construction and Community Development, Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities and Rules Committees. Senator Krueger is a strong advocate for tenants’ rights, affordable housing, improved access to health care and prescription drug coverage, social services, and more equitable funding for public education, including higher education. She has made reforming and modernizing New York State’s governmental and electoral processes.
Amol Sinha, Esq.
Amol Sinha has served as the Executive Director of the ACLU-NJ since 2017. Prior that, Amol was a policy advocate at the Innocence Project, where he led state-level policy campaigns nationwide to address wrongful convictions. Amol is also an adjunct professor at Marymount Manhattan College and serves president of the South Asian Bar Association of New York and co-chair of the public interest committee of the South Asian Bar Association of North America. Amol holds a B.A. in journalism and economics from New York University, and a law degree from the
Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law.