Jyoti Nanda

Jyoti Nanda is a nationally recognized expert in youth justice and an interdisciplinary scholar whose work lies at the intersection of criminal law, juvenile justice, and social inequality. Her research examines how legal actors, doctrines, and institutions have contributed to—or failed to prevent—the growth of the carceral state, particularly as it impacts marginalized youth.

Nanda’s scholarship is rooted in a deep commitment to racial and social justice, informed by her background in ethnic studies, her legal practice in civil rights, and her decades of work as a youth advocate. She explores how systems of power shaped by race, age, gender, dis/ability, sexual orientation, gender identity, and immigration status interact with criminal legal processes. Her 2012 article Blind Discretion: Girls of Color in the Delinquency System became the foundation for a widely cited national report on the adultification of girls of color. Her most recent article on juvenile probation critiques the system as a deceptive mechanism that funnels youth deeper into the criminal legal system.

In recognition of her pioneering scholarship, Nanda has received numerous prestigious honors. Most recently, she was named one of only four 2025–2026 Bellow Scholars—a national distinction awarded to law faculty whose empirical research promotes access to justice. She also received the 2024–2025 Kenneth and Harle Montgomery Foundation Award from Southwestern Law School in recognition of her innovative work. In 2022, she was honored with the Justice Jesse W. Carter Faculty Scholarship Award from Golden Gate University School of Law for her impactful and cutting-edge contributions to legal scholarship.

Nanda has published in leading legal journals including the UCLA Law Review, Columbia Journal of Race and Law, Nevada Law Journal, Lewis & Clark Law Review, and Disability Law Journal. She is also a co-editor of Children and the Law (8th ed.), the nation’s leading youth law textbook, widely used in law schools across the country.

Nanda’s impact extends beyond the academy. Her work has been featured in national print, television, and radio media. She was named a Salzburg Global Fellow in 2023 and served as a youth justice scholar at international convenings on youth violence and safety in the Netherlands and Austria. She also serves as the nominated Reporter for the American Bar Association’s forthcoming Youth Justice National Standards.

Currently, Nanda leads two major groundbreaking projects.  In 2024, she received a $1.35 million dollar grant from the Department of Justice Office of Juvenile Justice Delinquency Prevention to develop the Youth Justice Navigator, an innovative, web-based platform that equips system-impacted youth and their families with tools to navigate the juvenile court system. In addition, she is the Principal Investigator, with Dr. Maritza Salazar and African American Policy Forum, on a comprehensive case file review of over 200 detained pregnant and parenting girls—research aimed at ending the incarceration of girls in Los Angeles County and beyond. 

Prior to joining Southwestern Law, Nanda taught at GGU School of Law for 5 years. Nanda joined GGU Law in 2019 after sixteen years of teaching at UCLA School of Law, where she helped build the Critical Race Studies and Public Interest Law programs. While at UCLA, she co-taught with Distinguished Professor Kimberlé Crenshaw and founded the Youth & Justice Clinic, which trained law and social work students to advocate for the unmet educational needs of children in juvenile proceedings.

She began her career as a Skadden Fellow at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF), litigating civil rights cases at the national level. An educator, legal scholar, and community activist, Nanda brings her lived experience to her work. She was born in Nairobi and is the proud daughter of parents who were refugees and immigrants from Pakistan, India, and Kenya.