Doctoral Students

rb1442@txstate.edu

Rachel Brooks earned a B.A. in Plan II/History from the University of Texas, a J.D. from the University of Houston Law Center, and an M.S. in Criminal Justice from Texas State University. Her research interests include jury and offender decision-making, indigent defender representation systems, specialty courts, and juvenile justice.

mlc169@txstate.edu

Monica Caballero earned a B.S. in Criminal Justice from the University of Central Florida and an M.S. in Criminal Justice from Texas State University. Her research interests include geographic crime analysis and mapping, statistics, corrections, and theory. Her recent work has been presented at the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences conference.

Andrew Carroll completed his Bachelor's of Applied Arts and Sciences from Texas State University in 2007. He earned a Master's of Science in Criminal Justice in 2017 from Texas State.  He has over a decade of practitioner experience in the field of law enforcement as well as over twenty years of experience from the military supporting contingency operations overseas. His research interests include specific deterrence with its relation to a geographical aspect, as well as the effects of "defunding" on policing.      

April Chai earned a B.A. in Psychology and a Post-Baccalaureate and M.A. in Criminology at Simon Fraser University, British Columbia, Canada. April’s areas of research interests focus on sex offenses, rational choice theory, routine activity theories, and geography and crime. More specifically, April is interested in exploring and identifying body disposal patterns in sexual homicide cases. She is currently a doctoral student in the School of Criminal Justice at Texas State University, studying under the direction of Dr. Kim Rossmo. Some of her recent work has been presented at the annual meetings of the Western Society of Criminology and the American Society of Criminology, and she has published in International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology.

Gemini Creason-Parker has a M.S. in Criminal Justice and a M.A. in Communication Studies from Northeastern State University (NSU) in Oklahoma, of which she graduated summa cum laude. She also earned her B.S. in Criminal Justice and B.A. in Spanish and Sociology at NSU, graduating with honors. Gemini's research interests are interdisciplinary, including the media and crime, capital punishment, sexual assault, transgender student experiences, and perceptions of police. She successfully defended her thesis in July 2020 titled, "'Especially Heinous' and 'Vicious Felonies': Deconstructing Possible Rape Narratives within Law & Order: SVU: A Pilot Study," a content analysis over campus sexual assault on the show in relation to rape scripts. She's presented at numerous conferences and has won paper and presentation awards, the most recent being the Midwest Sociological Society's 3-Minute Thesis competition in Spring 2021.

07 Hines Academic Center
jd1281@txstate.edu

Joel Denney earned a B.S. in Applied Sociology from Texas State University and an M.A. in Sociology from The George Washington University. His academic interests include constitutional law and civil liberties, police training and use-of-force techniques, racial and economic inequality, conflict theory, and juvenile justice.

edescartes@txstate.edu

Elisa Descartes earned her B.A degree in Public Justice at SUNY Oswego and graduated cum laude in 2019. During her undergraduate studies, she presented research at the American Society of Criminology Annual Meeting in 2018 with Dr. Marget Schmuhl, entitled "Curriculum, Diversity Experiences, and Colorblindness: Examining Perceptions of inequality in the Criminal Justice System." Elisa earned her M.S. degree in Criminology and Criminal Justice at Northeastern University in 2020. Elisa's research interest includes critical race theory, immigration and crime, juvenile justice, and racial disparities in criminal justice outcomes.

bjd89@txstate.edu

Barbara Joyce Dinkins earned a Bachelor's degree in both Psychology and Criminology and a Master's degree in Criminology from the University of South Florida. Her research interests include personality and individual level differences, especially psychopathy. As a doctoral teaching assistant, she teaches Statistics for Criminal Justice.

Madison Doyle received a B.S. In Criminal Justice and Criminology and Psychological Science from Ball State University in 2018. She earned an M.A. in Criminal Justice from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock in 2020. Her research interests include police & community responses to active shooter events, and organizational & individual well-being. Madison is a co-principal investigator on projects involving officer burnout and job satisfaction, organizational well-being, and officer self-legitimacy with Dr. Sean Patrick Roche. She currently works as a research assistant at the ALERRT Center, collaborating with the research team to study social media responses to active shooter events.

Aaron Duron earned a bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice with a focus on law enforcement from Texas State University in 2016, and a master’s degree in Criminal Justice from Texas State University in 2018. He is currently a doctoral student in the School of Criminal Justice at Texas State University. He is also working as a research assistant for the ALERRT (Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training) center. His research interests are policing, law enforcement, criminal law, and criminal psychology. Some of the projects he has worked on has been presented at the American Society of Criminology conferences.

Kevin Elliott earned a B.S. in Criminal Justice from the University of Texas at El Paso and a Master’s degree in Public Administration from California State University, Northridge. He is a retired detective sergeant from the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Dept where he worked in gangs, homicide, and anti-terrorism. Since retirement, Kevin has been the director of corporate security and crisis management expert for Toyota Motor Corporation. He is currently working on his dissertation regarding connectivity as a critical mitigant of Post Traumatic Stress in retired law enforcement.

07 Hines Academic Center
(512) 245-2174
ajf92@txstate.edu

Allison J. Fernandez earned an A.A.S. in Paralegal Studies and an A.A. in Criminal Justice from San Antonio College. She also has a B.A. in Criminal Justice, magna cum laude, and a M.S. in Criminal Justice and Criminology from The University of Texas at San Antonio. Her research interests include measurement issues, developmental/life-course criminology, and juvenile delinquency.

Christian Fritz earned a bachelor's degree from Weber State University in 2012 integrating history, political science and Asian studies. He then went on to obtain a master of science in sociology from Utah State University before moving on to become a doctoral student of criminal justice at Texas State University. His research interests include theory, predictive analysis, and canines in criminal justice. In his spare time, Christian is a both a search and rescue and conservation dog handler with Alamo Area Search and Rescue and K9s 4 Conservation.

Katlyn Fritz completed a B.S. in Biological Anthropology, with minors in Criminal Justice and Sociology from Utah State University in 2017. She completed an M.S. degree in Criminal Justice at Texas State University in 2020. Katlyn has worked at the Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency as the Managing Editor during her doctoral studies, and currently serves on the Texas State University Graduate House of Representatives. Her research interests and current projects are related to mental health in correctional settings, including looking at differences in treatment by age and race. 

Leslie Garza earned a bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice from the University of Texas – San Antonio in 2013, and a master’s degree in Criminal Justice from Sam Houston State University in 2016. Currently a doctoral student in the School of Criminal Justice at Texas State University, her research interests include procedural justice within the court system and cybersecurity risk perception.

06 Hines Academic Center
(512) 245-2174
a_g559@txstate.edu

Arindam Ghosh earned a B.E. in Electronics Engineering from Shivaji University, India; an M.S. in Science, Technology and Public Policy, and a Masters in Business Administration from Rochester Institute of Technology. Arindam’s areas of research interests focus on geography and crime, and social disorganization and routine activity theories.  More specifically, Arindam is interested in exploring how changes in crime patterns relate to changes in the built environment.  Arindam is studying under the direction of Dr. Mark Stafford and working on his dissertation which involves analyzing the effect of criminogenic facilities on the nature and extent of the spatial distribution of different types of crime. He also works as a senior analyst for Bexar County Judicial Services in San Antonio, TX.

Vitor Gonçalves earned a B.A. in Public Administration from the João Pinheiro School of Government (Brazil) in 2015 and a M.A. in Sociology from Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG-Brazil) in 2019. He has previously taught the course of Criminal Justice System and Public Security Policies (2020) for undergraduate students at the João Pinheiro School of Government and worked as a Public Policy and Government Administration He has been a Specialist in the government of the State of Minas Gerais (2016-2020). He is currently a researcher in the Center for Studies on Criminality and Public Safety at UFMG and a Ph.D. student in the School of Criminal Justice at Texas State University. His interests include juvenile justice, criminal justice organizations, and international comparative studies.

Isaac Horn earned a Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice from Sam Houston State University, a Master of Science in Criminal Justice from Sam Houston State University, and a Master of Arts in Applied Philosophy and Ethics from Texas State University. He has a professional background in Law Enforcement and the U.S. Army. His current research interests are terrorism, transnational criminal organizations, active shooter events, and police training.
 

Alison Jarzombek earned a B.A. in Criminology from St. Mary’s University in San Antonio in 2018. She attended Southern Methodist University and earned an M.A. in Dispute Resolution in 2019. While at SMU, Alison acquired certifications in Civil and Family Mediation for the State of Texas. Alison’s research interests include crime prevention, juvenile justice, recidivism, conflict management training, and program evaluation.

John F. Lopez earned a B.A. in Political Science from Southwestern University and a Juris Doctor from the University of Texas School of Law. He spent almost 20 years as a prosecutor in both misdemeanor and felony courts in Travis County and retired in 2021 after 17 years with the Travis County District Attorney’s Office. During that time, he served in the trial courts, juvenile court, the worker’s compensation insurance fraud unit, the grand jury unit, the conviction integrity unit, and the pretrial diversion unit. He has specific expertise in search warrants, digital evidence, and grand juries. His research interests include prosecutor decision making, forensic evidence, digital evidence, and cybercrime.

jlm290@txstate.edu

Jessica Marinez earned a Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Texas at San Antonio in 2009 and a Master’s Degree from Texas State University in 2013, both in Criminal Justice. She has previously worked as a teaching assistant in the Health Professions Department at Texas State and as a research assistant at the Texas School Safety Center. Jessica is currently working on her dissertation with Dr. J. Pete Blair and intends to graduate by the end of 2018. Her areas of research include post-traumatic growth among survivors of school shootings as well as wrongful convictions, and poverty and crime. Some of her research has been presented at Criminal Justice Conferences in Chicago, Philadelphia, and Florida.

Molly McDowell earned a B.A. in English from Cornell University and a master's in Public Administration from Binghamton University. She is a member of Pi Alpha Alpha, the honor society for public administration. Her research interests include quantitative methods, particularly structural equation modeling; gender violence, communities and crime. Her dissertation analyzes the spatial distribution of police-reported IPV incidents in Austin, Texas, within the context of social disorganization theory and gentrification, and is supervised by Drs. Bob Vasquez, Kim Rossmo, Mark Stafford, and Callie Rennison. She is a recipient of a Doctoral Merit Fellowship at Texas State University and was the School of Criminal Justice and Criminology’s Outstanding Doctoral Research Assistant in 2018.

John Miller earned a bachelor’s degree in Political Science from Texas Tech University and a Master’s degree in Criminal Justice from Norwich University. He has over a decade of experience in specialized policing issues domestically and internationally. John’s current research interests include environmental criminology, intelligence led policing and predictive analysis, transnational organized crime and terrorism, and border issues.

Craig Moore earned a B.A. in Political Science at Austin College in 2000. He then earned a Master of Public Affairs from the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs and a Juris Doctorate from the University of Texas School of Law in 2004. Licensed to practice law in Texas since 2004, Craig was a misdemeanor and felony prosecutor in Travis County, Texas for fourteen years and supervised two felony pretrial diversion programs focusing on mental health and substance use. He is a founding board member of the Austin-Travis County Sobering Center. Craig’s interests include diversion programs, treatment and rehabilitation, youthful offenders, and criminal law and procedure.

Michelle Myers earned a B.S. in Sociology and M.S. in Applied Sociology from Texas State University.  Her research interests include quantitative methodology, geographic crime analysis, and theory.

Jeffery Nelson earned a B.S. in Criminal Justice from Texas State University in 2015 and a J.D. from Texas A&M University in 2021.  He previously worked as a bond officer with Bexar County Pretrial Services.  His research interests include legal decision-making in criminal courts, international and interstate comparative criminology, and perceptions of the criminal justice legal system.

tlo29@txstate.edu

Tameishia Olden earned an A.A.S. in Environmental, Safety, and Security Technology and a B.A. in Social Science at Thomas Edison State College. She also earned a graduate certificate in Terrorism and Counterinsurgency Studies and Master of Security Studies with a concentration in Regional Studies at Angelo State University. She has several years of experience in the criminal justice field working in security, corrections, law enforcement communications, and as an instructor. Currently, she is a substance abuse counselor at a Texas Department of Criminal Justice contract facility. Her research interests include international terrorism, racial profiling, child abuse, treatment of chemical dependency and mental health disorders in the criminal justice system, and criminal justice education.

Roxana Perez completed a B.A. in Psychology, with a minor in Criminal Justice in 2019 and a M.S. in Human Development and Family Science in 2021, both at Texas State University. Throughout her studies at Texas State, Roxana has worked as a research assistant for Dr. Norma Perez-Brena in the School of Consumer Sciences on the Strengthening Relationships/ Strengthening Families project involving adolescent parents in the Central Texas region.  

Her research interests and current projects are related to juvenile delinquency, mental health in juvenile correctional settings, and disparities among juvenile minorities. Specifically, Roxana is interested in exploring and identifying family patterns in juvenile delinquency and providing culturally adapted programs in juvenile correctional facilities. Her recent work has been presented at the National Council on Family Relations Conference, and has appeared in the Journal of Family Theory & Review.

Taylor Polk earned his B.S. in Criminal Justice, his M.S. in Criminal Justice, and his M.A. in Geography, all from Texas State University. While pursuing his degrees in criminal justice, he also earned a certificate in geospatial intelligence analysis. He has worked as a lecturer for the School of Criminal Justice at Texas State since 2020 teaching policing and corrections. His research interests include police use of force, spatial modeling of police shootings and TASER use, as well as police officer perceptions of counseling and treatment following critical incidents.

Duwayne A. Poorboy completed his bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice in 2004 and his master’s degree in criminal justice in 2021 at Texas State University. He has worked as a police officer for the San Marcos Police Department since 2006. His research interests is hostage/crisis negotiation and how these skills may be used in other facets of policing. He is also interested in helping the police profession understand and implement more evidence-based practices.

Elizabeth Quinby received her B.A.  in psychology from the University of Northern Iowa, a M.A. in Counseling and Psychological Services from St. Mary’s University of Minnesota, and is a licensed professional clinical counselor. She works with the American Institute for the Advancement of Forensic Studies to provide education to criminal justice professionals on forensic topics. Her research interests include witness memory and police interrogations.

Meagan Robbins earned a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in Criminology from the University of Texas at Dallas. Her research interests include recidivism, community effects, spatial distribution of formerly incarcerated persons, and program evaluations. Meagan taught Introduction to Criminal Justice course in Spring 2021.

tag70@txstate.edu

Tiffany Gentry Rogers earned a bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Washburn University, and a master’s degree in Criminal Justice from Texas State University. She is currently a doctoral student in the School of Criminal Justice at Texas State University. Her research interests include violence studies, specifically violent crimes against animals. Some of her recent work has been presented at the American Society of Criminology conferences.

Alyssa Shallenberger is a graduate of South Texas College of Law Houston, with her Juris Doctorate and Texas State University, with her Master of Science in Criminal Justice and Minor in Legal Studies, and Bachelor of Science. Alyssa has worked at Children at Risk as the Senior Law Fellow and Program Coordinator providing data analysis and policy support on numerous initiatives, including Cities Empowered Against Sexual Exploitation (CEASE) Texas, a project focused on reducing the demand for human trafficking and illicit commercial sex and funded by the Office of the Texas Governor. She is the recipient of the Doctoral Merit Fellowship. Her research interests include criminal law and procedure, gender-based violence, and public international law, particularly the local implementation of human rights law, transitional justice, and the intersection of human rights law, law of armed conflict, and individual criminal responsibility.

Hill House
(512) 245-2174
cdc173@txstate.edu

is currently an instructor and a doctoral student in the School of Criminal Justice at Texas State University. She earned a B.S. in Criminology, and an M.S. in Sociology with an emphasis in Criminology, from Texas A & M University- Kingsville. She also earned a J.D. from Loyola College of Law in New Orleans, Louisiana, and an L.L.M. in Energy and Environmental Law from Tulane Law School in New Orleans, Louisiana. Her research interests include green criminology, female criminal behavior, and white-collar crimes. She recently published an Encyclopedia of Crime Entry for Environmental Crimes and Female Sex Offenders. Currently, she is working on developing sex offense profiles for female sex offenders and exploring boomtown crime in communities throughout Texas.

Curriculum Vitae

Emily Spivey earned a B.S. in Criminal Justice and an undergraduate certificate in Criminalistics from the University of North Texas in May of 2015. Engaging with the subject on a graduate level, she received a M.S. in Criminal Justice from the University of North Texas in May of 2019. Emily is a recipient of the Doctoral Merit Fellowship and she currently works as a doctoral research assistant at the Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training (ALERRT) Center through Texas State University. Her research interests include criminological theory, theory testing, and policing.

Alejandro Vasquez received his B. A. in Criminal Justice from Sam Houston Sate University in 2020 along with receiving his M.S. in Criminal Justice from Sam Houston State as well in 2022. His research interests include sexual deviancy, recidivism amongst juvenile Latinos, and understanding how the mentally ill are being affected by the correctional system.

John H. Weigel earned his Bachelor’s degree in Humanities from the University of Texas at Austin in 1996. He then earned his law degree from the University of Texas School of Law in 1999. After 15 years as a practicing criminal defense attorney, he transitioned to academia in 2014, earning Master’s degrees in History in 2015 and Criminology in 2017. His areas of research interest are historical criminology, corrections, and policing. He presented at the Southwestern Association of Criminal Justice conference in the fall of 2017 and will be presenting at the American Society of Criminology conference in the fall of 2018.

Kimberly Wong earned a B.S. in Justice Studies with a minor in Psychology from San Jose State University, and a M.S. in Criminal Justice from California State University Long Beach. She completed graduate level certificates in Applied Forensic Science and Crime Analysis, and Internet Crime and Identity Theft. She is a nationally certified crime scene analyst and trainer for a local police department, and serves as the instructor for the forensic evidence course. She currently serves on the executive board of TXST's Chapter of Alpha Phi Sigma, the Criminal Justice Honor Society,  and is a member of the TXST University Police Department Security and Personal Safety Committee. Her research interests include the influence of forensic science on criminal investigations, police officer perspectives on policing, and the victimization reporting behaviors of law enforcement officers.