Doctoral Students

Mikelle Angiuli double-majored in criminal justice and sociology, with a minor in psychology, at the University of Northern Colorado, and stayed there to get her master’s in criminal justice. Her research interests include policing and police reform, mental illness in the criminal justice system, and community and social welfare programs. 

Frank Benton has  bachelor’s degrees (in sociology and criminology, respectively) from the University of Central Arkansas. He also earned a Master’s degree in criminal justice from Sam Houston State University. He currently serves as a data analyst for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. He is interested in police culture, police officer and 911 dispatcher health and wellness, and police behaviors at the individual-, situational-, organizational-, and spatial-levels. He is also interested in special inmate populations, correctional officer health and wellness, and predictive factors of prosocial outcomes in correctional settings. 

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 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.

Josh Davis holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science with concentrations in History and Sociology and a Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice (2008) from Wichita State University. In 2022, he returned to Wichita State in 2022 and completed his Master of Arts in Criminal Justice. He worked for several years as a police officer serving as a patrol officer, an investigator, and a school resource officer. He then transitioned into education, teaching middle and high school students and later law enforcement officers at Kansas's law enforcement academy. Josh's research interest involves anything policing-related, but particularly rural policing, police culture, and police training.

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.

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.

George Garza holds a bachelor's degree and a Master's degree, both in criminal justice, from Texas State University. His research focuses on law enforcement and mental health.

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.

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.

Gwen Kovaleski has a B.S. in Sociology from Suffolk University in Boston, a M.S. in National Security from the University of New Haven in Connecticut, and a M.S. in Information Technology (Cybersecurity) from Capella University. Her research interests include religion in corrections, sex crimes, mental health, and serial offenders.

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.

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.

Monishia "Moe" Miller received a bachelor's degree from the University of California, Irvine, in Sociology, and earned her Master of Science in Criminal Justice Administration from California State University, Los Angeles. She started my career as a group home counselor and medically retired as a probation corrections counselor. After a brief retirement, she taught criminal justice at California State University, Fullerton. She is interested in examining social inequality and justice issues regarding youth/juveniles in schools, communities, and justice systems. 

Gil O’Brien earned his bachelor’s degree and master’s degree (both in criminal justice) from Iona University in New Rochelle, NY. Prior to earning my degrees, he worked in law enforcement for approximately twenty-seven years. He is interested in police officers' reactions under stress, and escalation and de-escalation during violent encounters. 

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.

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, and her M.A. in Counseling and Psychological Services from St. Mary’s University of Minnesota. Her research interests include eyewitness and officer memory, police interviews, and hostage and crisis negotiation. She has previously taught Wrongful Convictions and is currently a research fellow at the ALERRT Center.

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.

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.

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.

Romane Zingraff received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Strasbourg in France, where she majored in English and Russian. She also holds a master’s degree in criminal justice from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.