Welcome To Zasha

Dr. Niaz Kasravi is an advocate and expert on criminal justice, social justice, and racial justice, with more than two decades of experience leading campaigns across the U.S. She is the Founder & Director of the Avalan Institute for Applied Research – a research, advocacy, and training institute.

She previously served as Criminal Justice Director at the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). At the NAACP, she helped build the Criminal Justice Program and led several successful initiatives, including campaigns to abolish the death penalty in Maryland, enact stronger anti racial profiling laws in New York City, and help free a wrongfully convicted man from a life sentence in Georgia. Her career also includes serving as Associate for the Domestic Human Rights Program of Amnesty International USA. Additionally, she has authored and helped produce several reports and policy handbooks on justice reform and police accountability.

Dr. Kasravi holds a Ph.D. in Criminology, Law and Society from the University of California, Irvine. In 2000, via a National Science Foundation grant, she traveled to Iran to work with Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi and conduct research on women’s rights and justice reform in that country.

Niaz was born in Iran and migrated to the U.S. with her family in 1984. She currently resides in Los Angeles, CA.