Faith Deckard is a sociology PhD student at the University of Texas at Austin. Prior to this, she attended Trinity University where she majored in biology and had aspirations of becoming a medical doctor. However, through life experiences and coursework, she discovered that she was more interested in studying the factors outside of the human body that shape behavior, perspective, and life outcomes, of which health is one of many. Sociology has become the academic home for such investigations, with Faith taking a particular interest in criminal legal contact, and its resulting consequences for defendants and their broader support networks (i.e. family, friends). Faith has received numerous academic awards for outstanding publications and papers, as well as being a distinguished grant fellow of both the National Science Foundation (NSF) and National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD). She is a Graduate Research Assistant in the Life HD Lab, and has taught for the UT Austin Department of Sociology, TPEI (Texas Prison Education Initiative), and the Population Research Center.