I received my PhD in Criminology, Law and Society from University of California, Irvine in 2008.  My fields of expertise include Proposition 36, crime policy, criminal justice system constraints, juvenile delinquency, policing, and research methods.  My doctoral research, which was funded by a National Institute of Justice Dissertation Fellowship, focused on the impact of California’s Proposition 36 on the case processing and sentencing of drug offenders in Orange County. Proposition 36, also known the Substance Abuse and Crime Prevention Act of 2000, prescribed drug treatment in lieu of incarceration for non-violent drug offenders.

In my prior (pre-professor) life, I was a police explorer for Foster City Police Department (in the San Francisco Bay Area), a dispatcher for Irvine Police Department, a crime analyst for Riverside Sheriff’s Department, and an intern-probation officer for Los Angeles County Probation Department. Beyond these "criminal justice" jobs, I was also an E.M.T. (I worked on an ambulance for a few weeks before I realized I wasn’t cut out for the job and instead taught CPR and first aid for awhile), a van driver for seniors and disabled citizens, and a junior high school camp counselor (it was the best job ever because I got paid to go to really fun places).