I collaborated with Bridgewater State University PD to bring interested criminal justice to visit Plymouth County House of Corrections. You can read the full story here.
I presented the paper (co-authored with Dr. Jason Silver and Dr. Audrey Hickert) "Conceptualizing and Measuring Public Stigma toward People with Prison Records" during the 2022 Annual Meeting of Criminology in Atlanta, Georgia. I discussed how we developed and validated a multi-dimensional measure of public stigma toward people with prison records. You can find a description of the presentation here.
With the support of the Building Bridges Program led by Aboubacar Diakite at Bridgewater State University Police Department, correctional officers from the Plymouth County Sheriff's Department came to talk to students in my Corrections classes in Fall, 2022. Students were excited to learn more about the experiences of COs in their local jail and House of Corrections!
In June 2022, I presented on the topic of corrections for the 2022 Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders, which is the flagship program of the Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI). We also discussed questions concerning public safety and police reform with police chiefs in surrounding police departments, including the Bridgewater Police Department, the Pembroke Police Department and the Wareham Police Department. And we discussed issues about sentencing and community corrections with the judge, probation officers, defense attorneys, and prosecutors in a local courtroom in the Attleboro District Court.
I was awarded the 2022 Massachusetts Colleges Online (MCO) Open Education Resource Award. The award is for innovative pedagogical practice that encourages student success and engagement. The award recognizes my efforts to teach without any textbooks that the students need to purchase out of their pocket. All course materials in my classes are free to access for the students. You can check out the award page and my video introduction of my pedagogical approach here.
I participated in a variety of campus activities, such as the Faculty Advocacy Network (FAN) walk and Bridgewater State University Admitted Students Day.