Nancy Rodriguez (born June 6, 1970) is an American criminologist and professor in the School of Social Ecology at the University of California, Irvine. Her research focuses on substance abuse, juvenile court decision-making, and sentencing policies. She previously taught in the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Arizona State University from 1998 to 2015. She was the director of the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) from February 9, 2015 to January 13, 2017. She was originally nominated to direct the NIJ in 2014 by then-president of the United States Barack Obama.