Elena Quintana is the Executive Director of the Institute on Public Safety and Social Justice at Adler University in downtown Chicago. Elena focuses on work that promotes socially just solutions to public safety challenges. This work requires creating strategic partnerships with community members and community-based agencies, law enforcement, detention facility staff and inmates, universities, and governments. Her work focuses on legal system reform, violence prevention, reentry, therapeutic approaches to dealing with trauma, and methods to address racial equity.

Elena attended the University of California at Santa Cruz, and studied Clinical and Community Psychology at DePaul University, earning her Ph.D. there. She volunteers working with people who have been incarcerated to assure that they will land on their feet with what they need to be successful. For leisure she enjoys baking, art, and attending live musical events.