Faculty

Kristie Blevins, Ph.D.
Associate Professor

Education: 
Ph.D. University of Cincinnati, Criminal Justice

Email: Kristie.Blevins@eku.edu
Phone: 859-622-6869

Research/Academic Interests:

• Corrections
• The occupational reactions of criminal justice employees
• Crime prevention
• She has also teamed with local law enforcement agencies to study theft, robberies, and prostitution

Publications:
Dr. Blevins’ work can be found in several journals including: 

• Journal of Offender Rehabilitation
• Criminal Justice Policy Review
• International Journal of Police Science and Management

She has also co-authored and co-edited chapters in: 

• Taking Stock: The Status of Criminological Theory and Transformative Justice: Critical and Peacemaking Themes Influenced by Richard Quinney

Associations/Affiliations/Work History:

• American Society of Criminology
• Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences
• Southern Criminal Justice Association

Charles Fields, Ph.D.
Professor

Email: Charles.Fields@eku.edu
Phone: 859-622-6555

Research/Academic Interests:

• Comparative state laws

Publications:
Dr. Fields’ work can be found in in several journals including: 

• The Prison Journal
• Journal of Criminal Justice and Economic Business Review

He has also authored and/or edited books, monographs and journals including: 

• The Dialogue
• American Journal of Criminal Justice
• Controversial Issues in Corrections
• Modern Police Organizations

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Carole Garrison, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus

Education: 
Ph.D. The Ohio State University, Public Administration with Criminal Justice Concentration

Email: Carole.Garrison@eku.edu
Phone: 859-622-0000

Publications:

Dr. Garrison co-authored a chapteron the "Realities of Police Women" in Women, Law and Social Control (2005).

Associations/Affiliations/Work History:

• Former Director of the University of Akron's Women's Studies Program
• Former Chair, Eastern Kentucky University Department of Criminal Justice and Police Studies
• Appointed in 1990 to the Department of Defense committee on Women in the Military (DACOWTS)
• Served as a District Electoral Supervisor in Cambodia from 1992-1993 as part of the UN peacekeeping mission, UNTAC
• Served as the Executive Director of the Cooperation Committee for Cambodia, a coordinating network of all humanitarian and development NGOs in Cambodia
• Served as a consultant to Natural Farm Nepal (NAFAN)

Awards/Accolades:

• Atlanta (GA) Bureau of Police Services Award for Distinguished Service
• "Outstanding Faculty" recognition from The University of Akron's Board of Trustees in 1987, 1991 and 1992

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Stephen Kappeler
Senior Lecturer

Education: 
B.S. Central Missouri State University
M.A. Radford University

Email: Stephen.Kappeler@eku.edu
Phone: 859-622-6710

Publications:

Dr. Kappeler’s work can be found in several journals including: 

• The American Journal of Police
• Journal of Criminal Justice
• Journal of Police and Criminal Psychology

Associations/Affiliations/Work History:

• American Society of Criminology
• Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences

Awards/Accolades:

• EKU’s Distinguished Educational Leader Award
• EKU’s Excellence in Leadership Award
• EKU’s Service Outside the Classroom Award

Victor Kappeler, Ph.D.
Dean of the College of Justice and Safety and Foundation Professor

Education: 
Ph.D. Sam Houston State University, Criminal Justice

Email: Victor.Kappeler@eku.edu
Phone: 859-622-3565

Research/Academic Interests:

• Crime and political economy
• Social construction of crime
• Ideology and crime, crime and popular culture
• Police deviance and corruption

Awards/Accolades:

• 2006 Cabinet for Justice and Public Safety Award for Academic Excellence
• 2005 Outstanding Criminal Justice Alumnus Award from Sam Houston State University
• Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Society of Criminology’s Division on Critical Criminology for “sustained and distinguished scholarship, teaching, and/or service in the field of critical criminology”

Pete Kraska, Ph.D.
Graduate Program Coordinator and Director

Email: Pete.Kraska@eku.edu
Phone: 859-622-1980

Research/Academic Interests:

• Making theoretical sense of the emergence of underground cage-fighting
• The trend to criminalize risky and negligent behaviors as an adaptation to late-modern social conditions
• A continuation of study into the blurring distinction between criminal justice and the military in the wars on drugs and terrorism.

Publications:
Dr. Kraska’s work can be found in a number of leading journals including: 

• Social Problems, Justice Quarterly
• Policing and Society

He has also authored seven books including: 

• Criminal Justice and Criminology Research Methods, Theorizing Criminal Justice: Eight Essential Orientations
• Militarizing The American Criminal Justice System: The Changing Roles of the Armed Forces and Police

Awards/Accolades:
Dr. Kraska’s work has been featured by:

• The Economist
• The New York Times
• National Public Radio
• Peter Jennings’s World News Tonight

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Deborah Louis, Ph.D.
Instructor

Education: 
Ph.D. Rutgers University

Email: Deborah.Louis@eku.edu
Phone: 859-622-0000

Research/Academic Interests:

• Strengthening families
• Improving community support services
• Ensuring that all community sectors have a voice in the decisions affecting their lives

Associations/Affiliations/Work History:

• Independent community development planning consultant
• Public interest advocate
• Neighborhood watch
• Community policing
• Diversity training
• Police brutality investigations
• Advising crime victims
• Advocacy for and evaluation of civilian review systems
• Negotiations in the context of civil disobedience

Betsy Matthews, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
  
Education: 
Ph.D. University of Cincinnati, Criminal Justice

Email: Betsy.Matthews@eku.edu
Phone: 859-622-8113

Research/Academic Interests:

• Community corrections
• Correctional rehabilitation

Associations/Affiliations:

• Former child care worker in a residential treatment facility for behaviorally disordered adolescents
• Former adult probation officer
• Served on American Probation and Parole Association, serving as a research associate on federally funded grant projects

Kevin Minor, Ph.D.
Professor

Education: 
B.S. Indiana State University
M.S. Emporia State University
Ph.D. Western Michigan University, Sociology/criminology

Email: Kevin.Minor@eku.edu
Phone: 859-622-2240

Research/Academic Interests:

• Institutional and community corrections
• Theories of crime and punishment
• Juvenile delinquency/justice
• Evaluation and applied research

Associations/Affiliations:
Dr. Minor has served as a consultant to several organizations and agencies, including:

• National Institute of Corrections
• Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention
• U.S. Bureau of Prisons

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Derek Paulsen, Ph.D.
Professor

Education: 
Ph.D. Sam Houston State University, Criminal Justice

Email: Derek.Paulsen@eku.edu
Phone: 859-622-2906

Research/Academic Interests:

• Spatial aspects of crime
• The impact of urban planning and development on crime patterns

Publications:

Dr. Paulsen’s work can be found in several journals including: 

• Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies and Management
• Journal of Investigative Psychology and Offender Profiling  
• International Journal of Police Science and Management

Associations/Affiliations/Work History:

• Director of EKU’s Center for Crime and the Built Environment

Gary Potter, Ph.D.
Associate Dean of the College of Justice and Safety and Professor

Education: 
Ph.D. Pennsylvania State University, Community Systems Planning and Development with an emphasis in Criminal Justice

Email: Gary.Potter@eku.edu
Phone: 859-622-7884

Research/Academic Interests:

• Transnational organized crime
• Human trafficking and the sex industry
• Drug trafficking by teenagers in rural Kentucky

Publications:
Dr. Potter’s work can be found in several journals including: 

• Crime, Law and Social Change
• Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice
• Criminal Justice Policy Review

He has also authored eight books including: 

• Drugs in Society
• Criminal Organizations
• Organized Crime
• Controversies in White Collar Crime

Judah Schept, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
 
Education: 
Ph.D. Indiana University

Email: Judah.Schept@eku.edu

Research/Academic Interests:

• The prison industrial complex
• Social movements and resistance
• Ethnography
• Cultural criminology
• Transformative justice
• Law and society

Irina Soderstrom, Ph.D.
Professor

Education: 
B.A. University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Ph.D. Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, Educational Psychology/Statistics and Measurement 

Email: Irina.Soderstrom@eku.edu
Phone: 859-622-1156

Research/Academic Interests:

• Statistics
• Research methods
• Research seminar 
• Program evaluation
• Evaluative research onparole programs, boot camps, correctional industries, teen courts and school safety

James Wells, Ph.D.
Professor

Education: 
Ph.D. Georgia State University, Research, Measurement, and Statistics

Email: James.Wells@eku.edu
Phone: 859-622-1158

Research/Academic Interests:

• Justice and safety agency related program evaluation research
• The improvement of criminal justice training
• Prison Rape Legislation Act

Publications:
Dr. Wells’ work can be found in several journals including: 

• Crime and Delinquency
• Journal of Juvenile Justice & Detention Services
• Federal Probation
• Journal of School Violence.

Associations/Affiliations:

• Director of the Center for Criminal Justice Education and Research (CCJER) in EKU’s College of Justice & Safety