Carson Whitelemons

Carson Whitelemons has been with Arnold Ventures since 2019 and helps identify and manage philanthropic opportunities and strategies for the Criminal Justice team. She currently focuses her efforts on the reintegration portfolio, which aims to reduce legal and structural barriers that prevent people with criminal records from engaging in society as full citizens. In this role, Carson has supported research, litigation, and policy efforts to reduce barriers, with a focus on employment and housing. She is also supporting the foundation's emerging work promoting successful reentry. Previously, Carson managed grants across a range of criminal justice issues at Arnold Ventures, including fines and fees and community supervision.

Prior to joining Arnold Ventures, Carson worked as a consultant for the Fines and Fees Justice Center analyzing the impact of driver’s license suspensions for nonpayment of fees and fines. As a Criminal Justice Fellow at the Policy Advocacy Clinic at Berkeley Law, she co-authored a fiscal analysis on fees and fines in California, as well as performing quantitative research on the implementation of juvenile fee reform.

Previously, Carson worked at the Brennan Center for Justice, first as a research associate/senior research associate on the voting rights team, and then as a grants manager for the entire organization. Her work focused on voting rights restoration and voter ID laws.

Carson received a master's in public policy from the University of California, Berkeley and a bachelor’s in government from Smith College.