Paige Presler-Jur is both a research scientist and a policy analyst. With a diverse academic background in engineering, environmental science, and public health, Ms. Presler-Jur works to understand the challenges and barriers communities encounter while trying to solve problems in criminal justice and public health contexts.
Currently, Ms. Presler-Jur is focused on facilitating development of resources to improve the criminal justice system’s multidisciplinary response to sexual assault for both current and cold cases. She provides technical assistance to our partners in the Sexual Assault Kit Initiative, a Bureau of Justice Assistance-funded program that aims to help clear the nationwide backlog of unsubmitted evidence in sexual assault cases. For our Forensic Technology Center of Excellence, she is developing educational materials and assisting with outreach for a special initiative on sexual assault. Her cross-disciplinary experience helps foster a victim-centered, trauma-informed response to sexual assault.
Ms. Presler-Jur joined RTI in 2004 as a chemical engineer in our Center for Energy Technology. She later made the transition to environmental science, where she worked with multidisciplinary teams across diverse agencies for research projects that included air and water quality analysis to understand environmental exposures of underserved populations.
She holds a certificate in public health from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and is a member of the Academy of Forensic Nurses.