Michigan State University Team

National Cadre of Trainers
 

Michigan State University Team
 

Edmund F. McGarrell
Edmund F. McGarrell is Director and Professor of the School of Criminal Justice at Michigan State University. McGarrell joined the School in August 2001. Previously he was a faculty member at Indiana University, where he served as Chair of the Department of Criminal Justice from 1996-2000, and at Washington State University at Spokane. He was Director of the Crime Control Policy Center at the Indianapolis-based Hudson Institute where he currently is an adjunct senior fellow. He also was the Co-Director of the Washington State Institute for Community Oriented Policing and a visiting fellow at the National Center for Juvenile Justice.

McGarrell’s research interests are in the area of communities and crime. He is the Principal Investigator of the initiative to provide training, technical assistance, and research in support of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN).  McGarrell is also completing several long-term research projects in Indianapolis. The first of these involves an experiment on the use of restorative justice conferences as an alternative response to juvenile crime. A second involves a strategic problem solving initiative to reduce homicide and firearms violence and is part of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Strategic Approaches to Community Safety Initiative. As an outgrowth of the violence reduction project, a pilot project was implemented on the application of a problem-solving model to the issue of inmate re-entry to the community. The Strategic Problem Solving Model utilized in these projects is being adapted in Project Safe Neighborhoods. Additionally, McGarrell is also helping to coordinate several MSU initiatives in the area of homeland and community security.

Additional areas of research include directed police patrol as a response to firearms violence; crime, fear and disorder in public housing; arrestee drug abuse monitoring and evaluation of court treatment programs; crime analysis; and attitudes toward crime and justice.

Tim Bynum
Tim Bynum is a Professor at the School of Criminal Justice at Michigan State University.  He is the former Associate Director of the Institute of Public Policy and Social Research where he directed the Evaluation Research Division.  He is the Director of the Michigan Justice Statistics Center, the state Criminal Justice Statistical Analysis Center. He is the Co- Principal Investigator of the initiative to provide training, technical assistance, and research in support of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN).    He is currently serving as the research partner for the Strategic Approaches to Community Safety Initiative in Detroit.  He recently concluded a visiting fellowship with the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services.

Dr. Bynum received his Ph.D. in Criminology from Florida State University.  His principal research interests lie in the area of evaluation of public policies and interventions in the area of crime and justice.  He has directed a number of studies that have focused upon decision making and discretion throughout the criminal justice spectrum.  These research projects include studies of the impact of enhanced narcotics enforcement, community policing, pre-trial release programs, juvenile diversion programs, drug use among offender populations, impact of drug treatment and intervention programs, community correctional programs, multi-jurisdictional task forces, delinquency prevention programs, gangs and youth violence, sentencing patterns, crime trends, robbery, homicide, the exclusionary rule, and the impact of race and gender on criminal justice decisions. He has published a wide range of project reports and articles from these studies.

Natalie Kroovand Hipple
Natalie Kroovand Hipple is a Research Fellow in the School of Criminal Justice at Michigan State University.  She is responsible for research coordination and data management for Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN).  She is also the Director of the Crime Control Policy Center (CCPC) at the Indianapolis-based Hudson Institute.  Additional areas of research include restorative justice, arrestee drug abuse monitoring, evaluation of criminal justice programs, inmate re-entry, crime analysis, and attitudes toward crime and justice.  Hipple is co-author of Returning Justice to the Community: The Indianapolis Juvenile Restorative Justice Experiment and has recently published an article in the Journal of Justice Research and Policy. Dr. Hipple has a Ph.D. in Criminal Justice from Indiana University.

Jerome G. Boles II
Jerome Boles is the Associate Director of the Michigan Regional Community Policing Institute at Michigan State University. Jerry is the former Chief of Police at the Lansing Police Department, where he served as a police officer for 30 years. While he worked in virtually every aspect of the Department during his career, the majority of his assignments were related to field duties in uniformed police service. After his appointment as Chief in 1991, Jerry’s most significant accomplishment in Lansing was the conversion of the Lansing Police Department to a community policing organization. The transformation of the Lansing Police Department was a dramatic and consuming project involving members from all work groups, community members, and political leadership. From decentralization, to flattening the organization, and the development of partnerships throughout the community, the results of this organizational transformation remain visible throughout the City today. Jerry is a member of the International Association of Chiefs of Police, the Michigan Association of Chiefs of Police, the Police Executive Research Forum, and many service and community groups. He holds both a Bachelors and Masters degree in Criminal Justice from Michigan State University, and is a graduate of the FBI National Academy. Jerry has an extensive background in instructing, training, and training development for both Lansing Community College and Michigan State University. He has served as a consultant and trainer to various private security and public criminal justice institutions both nationally and internationally.

Heather Perez
Heather Perez is a Research Fellow for Project Safe Neighborhoods.  Her duties and responsibilities include, but are not limited to: coding and tracking site activities and reports, providing training and technical assistance both on site and off, report writing, conducting telephone and face-to-face interviews, collecting and analyzing data, and conference and training session attendance.   Prior to joining the research faculty in the School of Criminal Justice, Ms. Perez has done consulting work for a wide variety of criminal justice agencies as well as worked for the National Criminal Justice Reference Service (NCJRS) and the Institute for Law and Justice (ILJ).  Other research interests include policing, drugs, and restorative justice.  Ms. Perez has a Master’s Degree in Criminal Justice from the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO).

Carol Zimmerman
Dr. Zimmerman is a Visiting Assistant Professor with the School of Criminal Justice at Michigan State University.  She received her Ph.D. from Michigan State University in 2006.  Her research interests are juvenile justice, risk analysis, and public policies and organizations.  Previously, she received her Masters in Public Policy from Ohio State University, and her B.A. from the University of Michigan. From 1991 to 2002, Dr Zimmerman served as the Assistant Cabinet Director for the Ohio Department of Youth Services.  In 2006, Zimmermann was awarded an Excellence in Teaching Citation at MSU.

Nicholas Corsaro
Nicholas Corsaro is a Ph.D. student in the School of Criminal Justice, at Michigan State University (MSU).  He is currently a member of the MSU research team that is supporting Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN). Nick received his Bachelor of Arts (2001) and Master of Arts in Criminal Justice (2003), from Indiana University-Bloomington.  As a student at Indiana University, he served as a research assistant at the Hudson Institute-Crime Control Policy Center and as an Associate Instructor at Indiana University-Bloomington. He has also co-authored an article that appeared in Critical Criminology: An International Journal. Nick’s areas of interests include methods and quantitative statistical techniques, social disorganization theory, GIS mapping, and restorative justice.  

Katie Christianson
Ms. Christianson is currently working on her Master of Science Degree in Criminal Justice at Michigan State University.  She received her B.A. in political science and legal studies, with a minor in criminal justice in 2004, from the University of Wisconsin Madison.  Her research interests include corrections, prisoner reentry, and criminal law.

 

National Cadre of Trainers

Erin Dalton
Erin Dalton is a full-time graduate student at Carnegie Mellon University’s Heinz School of Public Policy.  Before coming to the Heinz School, Ms. Dalton spent five years at the Department of Justice’s research component, the National Institute of Justice where she served in a variety of roles including:  Writer, Special Assistant to the Deputy Director, Special Assistant to the Acting Director, and Program Manager.  During this time, Ms. Dalton gained substantive experience in the areas of research-driven violence interventions, gun violence, drug policy, and offender reentry.  Ms. Dalton received two Special Act awards and was nominated for an Attorney General’s Award.  Ms. Dalton received a Bachelors degree in economics and criminal justice from American University in 1997.

Scott H. Decker
Scott H. Decker received the B.A. in Social Justice from DePauw University in 1972.  He earned an MA in Criminology in 1974 and a Ph.D. in Criminology in 1976, both from Florida State University.  He is Curator's Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Missouri-St. Louis.  He is the author of nine books, over one-hundred articles, and more than one hundred presentations.  His research has been funded by the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation, U.S. Department of Justice, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Institute on Drug Abuse and the State of Missouri.

Professor Decker's primary research focus has been on criminal justice policy, gangs, violence, and drugs.  This research includes studies of victim offender relationships in violent events, the role of drugs in crime, the emergence of youth gangs in the 90's, the deterrent effects of sanctions, and the illegal firearms market.   His most recent book, Policing Gangs and Youth Violence was published in 2002 by the Wadsworth Publishing Company.  He is the author of an ethnographic study of gang members and their families, Life in the Gang: Family, Friends and Violence, published by Cambridge University Press in 1996.  This book was a finalist for the 1997 C. Wright Mills Award, and received the prize for Outstanding Book from the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences in 1998.  He is co-author of Burglars on the Job: Streetlife and Residential Burglary, published by Northeastern University Press in 1994.  This book won the award for Outstanding Scholarship from the Society for the Study of Social Problems.

Melinda Haag
Melinda S. Haag is the Director of the Marion County Justice Agency.  Prior to that time she spent nearly 18 months as a Special Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of Indiana in Indianapolis working on the Department of Justice’s Strategic Approaches to Community Safety Initiative, known in Indianapolis as The Indianapolis Violence Reduction Partnership (IVRP).  Prior to joining the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Melinda was a Deputy Prosecutor for nearly 12 years in the Marion County Prosecutor’s Office in Indianapolis, Indiana.  During her tenure as a Deputy Prosecutor, Melinda prosecuted child abuse, sex offense cases, and gang cases, supervised a felony criminal court, trained other deputy prosecutors, and assisted in creating the office’s community prosecution initiative--The Street-Level Advocacy Program--which she directed.

Melinda has assisted the National District Attorney’s Association and the American Prosecutor’s Research Institute in providing technical assistance to jurisdictions around the country in the creation of community prosecution initiatives.  She has also spoken at a number of conferences sponsored by the American Prosecutor’s Research Institute, the National Institute of Corrections, and the Executive Office of Weed & Seed on the subjects of community prosecution and community justice.  Recently, she has provided training to the Bureau of Justice Assistance in the area of Project Development and Implementation.

Melinda is a 1981 Phi Beta Kappa graduate of DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana.  She received her J.D. at the Indiana University School of Law in Indianapolis in 1985.  During law school, Melinda was an Associate Editor of The Indiana Law Review, and a member of Order of the Barrister.  In 2000, Attorney General Janet Reno presented Melinda with the Director’s Award for her work with the Indianapolis Violence Reduction Partnership.  In her free time, since 1988, she has been an Instructor in the English Department at Indiana University in Indianapolis teaching literature.

Jason Hutchens
Jason Hutchens is an Adjunct Senior Fellow with the Hudson Institute in Indianapolis. He joined Hudson in 1997 and worked with the Indianapolis Mayor's Office on crime policy and the Indianapolis Violence Reduction Partnership.  He also has been involved in firearm research projects with the Indianapolis Police Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms.

Mr. Hutchens is currently working for the Marion County Justice Agency as Chief Administrator of Special Projects and Coordinator of the Indianapolis Violence Reduction Partnership.  He is also a national trainer for the Department of Justice for the Project Safe Neighborhoods initiative.  He also is a member of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Indiana Project Safe Neighborhoods Task Force.

Mr. Hutchens is an attorney and admitted to the Indiana Bar.  He received his Doctor of Jurisprudence from Indiana University School of Law – Indianapolis in May, 2001 and his undergraduate degree from Indiana University with a B.S. in Public Affairs in 1998.  His articles and commentary have appeared in the Indianapolis Star, San-Diego Union Tribune, United Press International (UPI), and American Outlook.  He is also the co-author of Reducing Illegal Drug Use In The United States: Blueprint For A Drug Free Future.

W. Richard Janikowski
Richard Janikowski is Chair and Associate Professor of the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Memphis. He has published on issues concerning criminal law, criminal procedure, and criminology.  He is currently the Principal Investigator for the Memphis Sexual Assault Research project, part of the United States Department of Justice’s  Strategic Approaches to Community Safety Initiative (SACSI) Professor Janikowski has also acted a trainer and resource person for newly designated SACSI sites. He was a member of the planning team for the District’s Hate Crime Initiative, assisted in organizing the highly successful 1998 Hate Crimes Conference, and moderated a panel on victim perspectives of hate crimes.

Professor Janikowski is also a Senior Research Fellow at the Memphis Shelby Crime Commission and serves on the Board of Directors of the Commission, for which he has conducted extensive research and analysis on a variety of topics.  In particular, the “Community Courts” Best Practices proposal led to the development of a Community Court in the Frayser community in north Memphis.  Professor Janikowski organized a research team which has worked with the court and it’s Community Advisory Board in implementing the project; moreover, Professor Janikowski is completing a comprehensive evaluation of the court, including pre- and post- implementation community surveys, crime data analysis, and process, outcome, and impact evaluations.

At present, Professor Janikowski is the Director of the Center for Community Criminology and Research (C3R), a partnership between the University of Memphis and the Memphis Shelby Crime Commission.  C3R was established in 2001 and incorporates four components in the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice involved in research and outreach functions

In collaboration with Shelby County Government, Professor Janikowski completed an evaluation of a local Drug Court funded by BJA as a pilot project and later at the request of the District Attorney General conducted an impact evaluation of the Drug Court.  He had led research teams to providing information, research and evaluation support to various government and social initiative programs addressing gangs and gang violence in Memphis and Shelby County.  Working with the Memphis Housing Authority, Professor Janikowski served on the Public Housing Transformation Taskforce and gathered data on the prevalence of crime in public housing, citizen and police perception of crime and law enforcement services in public housing developments, and application of CPTED (Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design) principles to selected developments.  Professor Janikowski has also conducted training with the Memphis Police Department and other criminal justice agencies, public health providers, and community groups.

John Klofas
John Klofas is Professor of Criminal Justice and department chairperson at Rochester Institute of Technology.  He did his undergraduate work at Holy Cross College and received his PH.D. from the School of Criminal Justice at SUNY – Albany.  Professor Klofas worked for the Massachusetts Department of Corrections and taught at Illinois State University prior to going to RIT. His research has been in corrections, management in criminal justice and community problems of crime and justice. He is currently the research partner in the Strategic Approaches to Community Safety Initiative in Rochester, New York and a Project Safe Neighborhoods research partner for the Western District of New York.

Jack McDevitt
Jack McDevitt is the Associate Dean for Graduate Studies and Research, Director of the Center for Criminal Justice Policy Research and an Assistant Professor in Northeastern University’s College of Criminal Justice.  He has been teaching and conducting research at the Center for the past 19 years.

Mr. McDevitt’s past research in the area of criminal justice has involved such issues as arbitrariness in the administration of the death penalty, and the role of mandatory sentences in gun control policy.  In 1989 he authored the first study of hate motivated violence which became the basis of Hate Crime: The Rising Tide of Bigotry and Bloodshed co-authored with Jack Levin.  He also authored the first national report on hate crime: The 1990 Hate Crime Resource Book for the FBI.  As a result of this research, he developed and is co-director of Northeastern University’s Civil Rights Certificate Training program.

In addition to his civil rights research, Mr. McDevitt has done extensive research on law enforcement, with recent work on racial profiling data collection.  Mr. McDevitt served as the principle investigator for a Department of Justice sponsored research project to examine racial profiling data collection systems in five jurisdictions.  Additionally, Mr. McDevitt has begun working with the state of Rhode Island on implementing and monitoring data for all police contacts with motorists.

Mr. McDevitt has testified as an expert witness before the U. S. Senate Judiciary Committee and the U. S. Civil Rights Commission.  He has served as a consultant to the FBI, the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the Governor and Attorney General of Massachusetts and numerous local law enforcement agencies.  He has appeared in numerous media publications including The New York Times, McNeil Leher Report, The Today Show, The Boston Globe, The Chronicle for Higher Education and many others.
 

Sylvia Oberle
Sylvia Oberle is currently Executive Director of the Center for Community Safety at Winston-Salem State University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.  Prior to joining the Center, she worked for the U.S. Justice Department and was project director of the Strategic Approaches to Community Safety Initiative in Winston-Salem.  This collaborative, community-wide initiative focuses on juvenile violence reduction and was one of five in the country set up by Attorney General Janet Reno to address a local crime problem through strategic planning and partnership development.
Sylvia has more than 20 years of experience in a variety of fields related to public issues and community affairs.  She is a former newspaper reporter and editor at the Winston-Salem Journal, where she directed local news for 10 years.  Before joining Winston-Salem State University, she was senior vice president of Fyock & Associates, a communications and issues management firm based in Winston-Salem.

She has conducted numerous seminars and workshops on building community engagement and partnerships, enhancing communications skills, and strategic communications planning.  She has been a commentator for University of North Carolina Public Television.  Her focus areas are education and criminal justice issues.

She was a recipient in 1999 of the Attorney General’s Award for Outstanding Contributions to Community Partnerships and Public Safety.
 

Patricia E. Roland
Patricia Roland is President of the newly formed Civix Group, a firm specializing in designing strategies to enhance community safety.  Until May of this year, she served as Project Coordinator for the Strategic Approaches to Community Safety Initiative (SACSI) and as the Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN) Coordinator for the United States Attorney, Eastern District of Missouri.

During her eleven years in the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Tricia directed the St. Louis Regional Ceasefire Initiative and led efforts to establish the U.S. Department of Justice Weed and Seed program in both St. Louis and Southeast Missouri.  She initially served as the District’s Law Enforcement Coordinator, directing federal, state and local law enforcement task forces geared toward the reduction of violent crime.  Prior to joining the U.S. Attorney’s Office, she held various governmental and legislative affairs positions in the St. Louis region and was a freelance writer for St. Louis Magazine and The Riverfront Times.

A graduate of Washington University in St. Louis, Tricia is currently enrolled in its Master of Liberal Arts program.  She has completed the Leadership St. Louis and CORO’s Women in Leadership programs and attended the State and Local Government Executives Program at Harvard University.