Nicolas Gutierrez III is a Ph.D. student in Sociology at the University of Southern California, where he is a USC Provost’s Fellow and W.E.B. DuBois & Ida B. Wells-Barnett Graduate Scholar. He is currently a Graduate Community-Engaged Research Fellow at the USC Equity Research Institute and the Media Director at SDSU’s Project for Sanitation Justice. Nicolas is a participant in the UW-Madison Institute for Research on Poverty’s 2024-25 Professional Development Training Series on Poverty and Economic Mobility Research.

Nicolas researches the criminalization of unsheltered homelessness, frontline policy implementation, and mutual aid. His work has been published in the International Journal on Homelessness, Public Integrity, and Scholars Strategy Network. His research has also been featured in the Voice of San Diego, CBS 8, NBC 7, inewsource, and Televisa Californias.

He earned an M.S. in Criminal Justice and Criminology from San Diego State University and a B.A. in Criminology, Law and Society from the University of California, Irvine (UCI).