Faculty and Staff Highlights & Congratulations

Here are some of the accomplishments of our outstanding faculty and staff this year:

Sisouvanh “Sis” Keopanapay, senior academic advisor/internship coordinator, received the 2021 College of Arts and Sciences Excellence in Undergraduate Advising Award.

Keopanapay also co-presented “Xenophobia, Anti-Asian Racism and Intolerance: How to Support Students, Faculty and Staff During COVID-19”, with the following advisors coming from various institutions:

Yung-HwaAnna Chow | Washington State University (she/her/hers)
Megumi Makino-Kanehiro | University of Hawaiʻiat Mānoa (she/her/hers)
Leah Panganiban | University of Washington (she/her/hers)
Kiana Shiroma | University of Hawaiʻiat Mānoa (she/her/hers)

Keopanapay’s part focused on “How to be an Ally When Witnessing Anti-Asian Racism,” using the 5 D’s bystander’s intervention technique that she learned from the Hollaback non-profit organization. The presentation in June 2020 was for the NACADA Global Connection Series.

The agenda for the whole presentation focused on the following topics:

Before: Tips for being Proactive in Confronting Racism
During: How to be an Ally when Witnessing Anti-Asian Racism
After: How to Support Individuals after Racist Acts
Helping Students Process Incidents of Racism
Helping Faculty Combat Racism in Online Courses
Helping Advisors and Staff Navigate Hate
Self-Care: When You are the One Experiencing Racism

Faith Lutze, professor, was recognized with the Keeper of the Flame Award by the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences and the American Society of Criminology (ACJS) Minorities and Women Section. Although the ACJS 2020 in-person meeting was cancelled due to COVID-19, the award was bestowed to Lutze for her sustained service contributions to the Section over time.

Lutze also received the 2021 ACJS Founder’s Award. This award is given to those who have done outstanding service to ACJS and the profession and is awarded to only one person per year in the Criminal Justice and Criminology discipline. You can read more about it on the College of Arts and Sciences website.

David Makin, associate professor, received the WSU President’s Leadership Award for Faculty. This award is for faculty who excel in their personal commitment to leadership and engagement at Washington State University and within the community.

Am elie Pedneault, assistant professor, presented “Criminal Failure: A Comparison between Completed Sexual Assault and Attempted Sexual Assault” in March 2021 at the Centre international de criminologie comparée (International center for comparative criminology) conference. In her talk, Pedneault proposed an examination of the context surrounding failed sexual assaults, i.e., those where the offender was unable to complete the crime (i.e., attempted sexual assault). In order to better grasp the specificity of failed sexual assault, they were compared to “successful” or completed ones. Using Routine Activities Theory, Pedneault hypothesizes that certain sexual crimes fail due to either (1) the faltering motivation of the individual attempting to commit the assault; (2) the target victim proving not to be appropriate; or (3) the presence and/or intervention of a guard. You can watch the presentation in French here.

Mary Stohr, professor, was invited to participate on a national Government Accounting Office Panel to discuss staffing in the Federal Bureau of Prisons in April 2020. She was also contacted by other several news organizations in 2020, including: Crime and Justice Research Alliance Newsletter (the media arm of the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences (ACJS) and the American Society of Criminology (ASC)) for expert Q&A and the Oral History Criminology Project in recognition of her contributions to research in criminology and criminal justice; The Marijuana Times regarding prospective legalization effects in New York; Politico about Focus Group paper; NPR about Focus Group paper; The Spokesman-Review about Focus Group Paper; and The Daily Evergreen, WSU student newspaper, about Private Prisons.

Stohr also presented generalized findings from several papers related to “The Effects of Marijuana Legalization on Law Enforcement and Crime,” research sponsored by the National Institute of Justice. The first presentation was at an NIJ-sponsored NewsBrief on December 3, 2019, Washington D.C., and the second was delivered remotely to the NIJ Working Group of U.S. Attorneys on September 22, 2020—participating were Dr. Dale Willits, Dr. Nicholas P. Lovrich, and other members of the research team.

Stohr was also highlighted on the 2021 Crimson Reads: 8th Annual Celebration of WSU Authors:

“Throughout my 30-year career, I have primarily taught courses and/or published in the areas of corrections, management, and green criminal justice at the graduate and undergraduate levels. Most of my research and writing has included graduate and undergraduate students. More recently, and with several colleagues including faculty, graduate and undergraduate students, I served as principal investigator on a large, 3.5-year National Institute of Justice grant (almost $1 million dollars) to study the effects of cannabis legalization on law enforcement and crime in Washington state. I was also involved in research on the effects of COVID on correctional institutions with former graduate students and six undergraduates this last summer. In total I have over 100 publications of one sort or another including seven books and over 70 peer reviewed journal articles.

“I particularly enjoyed writing this book, Corrections: From research, to policy, to practice (2^nd Edition), because of my experience in working in an adult male prison in Washington state many moons ago (Larch Corrections Center), but also because I have taught corrections classes and done corrections research for 35 years. Both of these experiences—the work and the teaching/scholarship—have provided me with a perspective on any number of corrections topics that I wanted to be able to share in a venue such as a book that would reach a wider audience.”

John Snyder, career-track teaching assistant professor, was recognized at the Access Center Recognition Ceremony for being a strong advocate for WSU students with disabilities. He received the 2021 Access Center Faculty Award.

Dale Willits, assistant professor, was granted tenure and promotion this academic year.

Willits also delivered a presentation on “Body-Worn Cameras, Justice, and Police Behavior,” which explored the origin and proliferation of body-worn cameras on police officers. Looking at the current state of research, he discussed the current limits of this technology while introducing a pathway toward embracing the technology for accountability, transparency, and the rule of law. Willits is a co-investigator for WSU’s Complex Social Interaction Lab, which develops software with real-world applications to aid public safety agencies. The talk was hosted by the WSU Pullman Common Reading Program.