People can draw on their lived experiences to inform how researchers design studies, the topics they investigate, and how they interpret their findings. Some people develop expertise on these topics stemming from their own experiences and a rich understanding of the systems, services, and context that shape people’s experiences, the challenges they face, and the needs they may have. Such expertise is known as “lived expertise.”

One way MDRC researchers have been engaging people with lived expertise is through advisory councils. To learn more about how advisory councils could be incorporated into earlier stages of the research process, MDRC designed the Council of Lived Experience Advisers (CLEA) to guide research conducted in its Center for Criminal Justice Research (CCJR). The CLEA brought together a diverse group of people who were formerly incarcerated and had a wealth of knowledge about the challenges people who are incarcerated face and the systems they navigate. They had honed this expertise through years of work in the criminal-legal-system-reform movement in New York City and in their professional work as advocates, researchers, and workers in government agencies and community-based organizations. The initiative enabled them to act as advisers and provide their insights on specific studies in the early stages of study design and implementation, work with MDRC researchers to inform existing studies, advise on CCJR’s objectives, and discuss how CCJR could carry out research that was more relevant to the communities who stood to benefit from its findings.

This issue focus shares recommendations for implementing lived expertise advisory councils, based on the experiences of MDRC staff members and CLEA members. It is designed for researchers, scholars, and organizations seeking to establish similar advisory boards.