recognition and public presence
recent recognition (awards)
2026 Contribution to the Field of Urban Affairs Award, Urban Affairs Association
2025-2026 Samuels Public Affairs Fellowship, Howard J. Samuels State and City Policy Center, Baruch College, City University of New York
2025 Mary Hellen Callahan Distinguished Service Award, Urban Affairs Association
2024 Joseph Bernd Award for the Best Paper Published in the Journal of Politics, Southern Political Science Association
2023 Emory Williams Distinguished Undergraduate Teaching Award (Social Sciences), Emory College of Arts & Science, Emory University
presence here and there - a sample
Atlanta Democrats Vote to Fund Controversial Police Training Center | Time Magazine, 2023
Emory Poll: Majority of Buckhead Residents Oppose Cityhood| Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 2023
Reform, Defund, Abolish: Understanding Calls To Re-Imagine The Police | Georgia Public Broadcasting/National Public Radio, 2020
Criminal Justice Office Hours with Dr. Michael Leo Owens | Criminal Justice Office Hours Podcast, 2018
Private Probation Companies | Full Frontal with Samantha Bee, 2016 (yes, it’s true.)
Black and Blue - Michael Leo Owens | Atlanta Journal-Constitution
House Study Committee on Compensating Wrongfully Convicted Persons: Testimony of Michael Leo Owens, Ph.D. | House of Representatives, Georgia Assembly, 2014
Closing Commentary | “Minimizing the Collateral Damage: Interventions to Diminish the Consequences of Mass Incarceration for Children," Cornell University, 2016
Why We Should Not Focus On Ex-Prisoner Reentry | “On the Outside” Symposium, North Carolina State University, 2015
Benefits for Drug Felons | The New York Times, 2013
“thought leadership,” as they call it
Making Police Shootings More Public | Sequential Potential Comics, 2024
“Where Do Police Departments Get Their Military-Style Gear? Here's What We Don't Know” | The Washington Post, July 20, 2020
“What Gets Ex-Prisoners Politically and Civically Involved?” | The Washington Post, September 21, 2018
“’Banning the Box' Would Help People Released from Prison Rebuild their Lives” | The Conversation, August 3, 2015
“Mass Incarceration Does Injustice to Millions of American Children” | The Guardian (U.K.), August 19, 2013
“Reduce Economic Immobility” | Atlanta Journal-Constitution, August 14, 2013.
“MLK Day: A ‘Day On’ for What?” | Opinion: Need to Know on PBS, January 18, 2013.
“Let My Preachers Endorse: A Modest Church-State Proposal” | Religion Dispatches, November 19, 2012
“Realities of Racial Equity” | Atlanta Journal-Constitution, February 16, 2012
“Why Blacks Support Vouchers” | New York Times, February 26, 2002