Faculty Profile

Jane Mitchell joined BYU Law School as an associate professor of law in 2025. Her research examines the criminal justice system and the cycle of poverty and incarceration. Her current work focuses on the conditions under which people change and desist from crime. She also writes and teaches about leadership. Her scholarship has appeared or is forthcoming in several leading journals, including The Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology, the Texas A&M Law Review, and the Connecticut Law Review.

Before entering academia, Professor Mitchell was the founder and CEO of The Reset Foundation, a nationally acclaimed non-profit dedicated to dismantling the poverty-to-prison pipeline. Based in the Bay Area, Reset provided a humane, restorative alternative-to-prison for young adult men. For her work at Reset, she was recognized as a Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree, a Google Impact Challenge winner, and an Echoing Green Fellow. 

Earlier in her career, Professor Mitchell practiced corporate law at Kaye Scholer, LLP. She helped found the ROADS Charter High Schools in the Bronx and worked on the Strategy & Accountability team of NYC’s Department of Education. She has taught in jails in San Francisco, Utah County, and NYC’s Rikers Island. Professor Mitchell holds a BA from Stanford University, a JD from Columbia Law School, an EdM from Columbia Teachers College, and a PhD in the learning sciences and leadership from NYU. She is the mother of three boys.