8/26/2022 – Bo Jiang (Ph.D. 2019) joined the Department of Sociology at the University of Macau as an Assistant Professor, focusing on computational criminology and policy.

8/10/2022 – Alex Piquero (B.A. 1992; M.A. 1994; Ph.D. 1996) appointed Director of the Bureau of Justice Statistics by President Biden.

6/27/2022 – Shelby Hickman (Ph.D. 2021) featured in CNA’s Justice Talks podcast on labor trafficking.

5/25/2022 – Laura Wyckoff (Ph.D. 2011) named Chief of Staff at the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF).

4/29/2022 – Jeff Kinney (B.A. 1993) was inducted into the Alumni Association Hall of Fame. Jeff is recognized for his significant, positive impact on society, as well as his efforts to instill Maryland pride and reflect the core values of the university. A talented author and cartoonist, Jeff Kinney created a cultural phenomenon with his #1 New York Times bestselling cartoon fiction series Diary of a Wimpy Kid. Kinney is widely credited with converting children into readers, an achievement which has recognized him as one of Time magazine’s most influential people in the world.

9/1/2021 – Shelby Hickman (Ph.D. 2021) works as a Research Scientist at CNA Corporation. Dr. Hickman served as a Co-Director on a COPS Office-funded study examining innovative uses of technology in law enforcement and a Co-Investigator on NIJ funded study examining juvenile justice responses to the COVID-19 pandemic.

6/7/2021 – Megan Augustyn (Ph.D. 2013) receives President’s Distinguished Achievement Award in Research Achievement from UTSA. Dr. Augustyn received two grants from the National Institute of Justice (NIJ), the top federal funding agency for criminology and criminal justice research. The first grant allows Dr. Augustyn to expand on her work using data from The Rochester Youth Development Study. Dr. Augustyn’s efforts secured $1.88 million to continue the study, the largest external award received by the College for Health, Community and Policy. Dr. Augustyn also secured over $745,000 from an NIJ GREAT grant for her project to inform programming services and improve retention rates for students who are victims of crime. The current study follows a cohort of 2,400 freshman college students at minority-serving institutions to examine both how often students report victimization both on and off-campus and the financial costs associated.

6/1/2021 – Mei Yang (Ph.D. 2021) joined the Crime and Justice Institute (CJI) as a Data and Policy Specialist. Dr. Yang is part of CJI’s pretrial team and works on several projects analyzing front-end data to improve pretrial systems.

6/1/2021 – Holly Nguyen (Ph.D. 2015) was promoted to Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology and Criminology, and School of Public Policy at the Pennsylvania State University.

4/10/2021 – Madeline Romm (M.A. 2021) works as a Faculty Specialist and Researcher at the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START) at the University of Maryland, College Park (UMD). Dr. Romm is a member of the irregular warfare and near-peer competition team.

10/3/2020 – Jessica Deitzer (Ph.D. 2020) works as a Postdoctoral Researcher for the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Crime, Security, and Law. Dr. Deitzer’s research contextualizes criminal decision-making research with self, social, and environmental factors. Currently, she studies how harsh and unpredictable environments can lead to short-term mindsets and crime.

9/2/2020 – Alex Piquero (B.A. 1992; M.A. 1994; and Ph.D. 1996) CCJS Alumni Dr. Alex Piquero was featured on the CrimComm Convos series with Aili Malm which addressed topics about public criminology, mentoring, and the guild that is academia.

8/2/2019 – Mateus Rennó Santos (Ph.D. 2019) joined the Department of Criminology at the University of South Florida (USF) as an Assistant Professor in the fall of 2019. His research focuses on crime and criminal justice trends, particularly on the drivers of changes in the rates of violence of populations, and on testing macro-level criminological theory.

6/1/2019 – Paul Mazerolle (Ph.D. 1995) was recently appointed the university's 19th president and vice-chancellor of the University of New Brunswick (Canada).

4/26/2019 – Florent “Flo” Groberg (B.A. 2006) was inducted into the Hall of Fame. Groberg enlisted in the U.S. Army in 2008 and received a Medal of Honor in 2015, the United States’ highest military decoration, for heroic actions taken during battle in Afghanistan in 2012, when he disrupted two suicide bombers. He is now chief of staff at Boeing Commercial Airplanes in Seattle.

4/18/2019 – Chae Jaynes (Ph.D. 2018) joined the Department of Criminology at the University of South Florida (USF) as an Assistant Professor in the fall of 2018. Her research focuses on examining offender decision-making from a rational choice perspective.

10/10/2018 – Alex Piquero (B.A. 1992; M.A. 1994; and Ph.D. 1996) Dr. Alex Piquero was interviewed on the #1 Criminologist in the world, for his podcast series on race, violence, and medicine to talk about his criminological research in addition to his life story.

7/27/2018 – Daren Fisher (Ph.D. 2017) joined the faculty as an Assistant Professor at The Citadel in the Department of Criminal Justice in the fall of 2017. He will continue his research by examining the relationship between government actions and terrorism around the globe.

7/27/2018 – Rochisha Shukla (M.A. 2016) is a research analyst with the Justice Policy Center at the Urban Institute, where her research focuses on correctional policy and prisoner reentry.

6/10/2018 – Tom Alexander (Ph.D. 2012) was promoted to Hagerstown Police Department Captain. Dr. Alexander oversees the Patrol Division, Special Operations Division, Investigative Division, and the Administrative Specialist.

12/18/2016 – Kathryn Noe Kozey (Ph.D. 2015) joined the faculty at Western New England University in the Department of Criminal Justice and Sociology in the fall of 2015. She will continue her work on crime in urban areas, collective efficacy, and gentrification.

4/18/2016 – Alex Piquero (B.A. 1992; M.A. 1994; and Ph.D. 1996) was selected as the recipient of the Western Society of Criminology (WSC) "President's Award" for his contributions to the field of criminology and positive influence on the current WSC president's career.

2/24/2016 – Alex Piquero (B.A. 1992; M.A. 1994; and Ph.D. 1996) was recently featured in an article by nationally syndicated columnist Esther J. Cepeda for NBC News. The article is titled "What I've Learned: Our Talk with Top-Ranked Criminologist Alex Piquero" and highlights an interview with Piquero about his life and career, including his decision to choose a career in Criminology and his time at the University of Maryland.

10/28/2015 – Bret Bucklen (Ph.D.) will receive the Practitioner Research Award from the American Society of Criminology's Corrections and Sentencing Division at this year's ASC annual conference. The Division of Corrections and Sentencing has initiated a new award aimed at recognizing excellent social science research conducted in government agencies to help that agency develop better policy or operate more effectively.

7/20/2015 – Holly Nguyen (Ph.D. 2015) will be joining the faculty at the Pennsylvania State University in the Department of Sociology and Criminology. She plans to continue her work on rewards from crime, groups, and crime and illicit drug markets.

6/10/2015 – Jan Hudson (M.A. 2015) now works for the Federal Judiciary for the Southern District of Iowa.

6/5/2015 – John McDonald (M.A. 1996 and Ph.D. 1999) was recently promoted to Professor of Criminology and Sociology at the University of Pennsylvania. John is also Chair of the Department of Criminology at the University of Pennsylvania.