Image of Jodi Anderson, Jacqueline Mouillesseaux, Esta Bigler and Christine Lovely

CJEI Explores Tech in Fair Chance Hiring at CUPA-HR National Conference

On Oct. 7, Cornell ILR’s Criminal Justice and Employment Initiative (CJEI) led a session at the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources (CUPA-HR’s) 2025 Annual Conference in Aurora, CO. 

The session explored technology’s role in fair chance hiring and brought together Cornell University’s Christine Lovely, vice president and chief HR officer; Jacquelyn Mouillesseaux, dual career and relocation consultant; and CJEI directors Esta R. Bigler and Jodi Anderson Jr. at the CUPA-HR national conference.

The session began with a discussion about the hiring challenges justice-impacted individuals face before shifting to CJEI’s Restorative Record, a confidential platform designed to expand hiring opportunities for these individuals.  The tool provides employers with a full picture of the job seeker who has non-traditional work experiences. Lovely spoke about the implementation of the platform as part of the university’s Bridge to Employment initiative, which supports the recruitment, hiring, retention, and advancement of untapped talent pools for employment at Cornell University.

 “For us, the CJEI team, it’s so important that Christine, Jackie and the University have welcomed the urgent need to leverage technology to expand hiring talent pools,” said Bigler, director of Cornell ILR’s Labor and Employment Law Programs, under which CJEI is housed. The Restorative Record at CJEI is an initiative of the ILR Center for Applied Research on Work and the Yang-Tan WorkAbility Incubator.

“There are 77 million people out there with criminal records,” said Bigler. “How do we unlock employment for this community? This technology helps the justice-impacted tell their story and show employers the incredible opportunity that is out there.”

“The fact that a prestigious University like Cornell is adopting this tool and these practices really reveals not just the necessity of fair-chance hiring tools, but also the huge opportunity,” said Jodi Anderson Jr., the tool’s inventor and CJEI’s director of technological innovation. “In fact, the tool is already being tested in the SUNY system as well, so I think there’s clearly a demand, from both the employer and employee, for tools like these.”

In the near future, Cornell University and the CJEI team plan to implement the Restorative Record platform at Cornell before expanding it to the SUNY system.

You may also like:

Assessment of a Unique Agreement to End Gender-Based Violence and Harassment in Apparel Factories

The Dindigul Agreement to End Gender-based Violence and Harassment (GBVH) has been successful in empowering women to identify and combat gender-based violence in the workplace, largely due to a strong female-led union and a productive labor-management relationship, according to a recent assessment by Cornell’s Global Labor Institute.
Large room of garment factory workers
Assessment of a Unique Agreement to End Gender-Based Violence and Harassment in Apparel Factories

Just Cause for NYC Gig Workers Provides Human Review for Algorithmic Firings

App workers receive minimal benefits and protection. Termination decisions are made by algorithms, which are prone to error and discriminatory customer abuse. ILR Assistant Professor Andrew Wolf describes how policies that provide just cause protections for app-based workers can address this problem.
App driver picking up customer
Just Cause for NYC Gig Workers Provides Human Review for Algorithmic Firings

Making Work Work

Making Work Work: Quality Work and Quality Care to Support Labor Market Participation and Retention of Care Workers and Care Recipients, is a new collaboration between The Yang-Tan Institute on Employment and Disability and The Worker Institute.
Photo of desk with laptop in front of window with shade drawn
Making Work Work
Originally published in CJEI.