Fall 2024 Message From the Director

November 11, 2024

The leaves have all changed their colors on the trees across campus and have begun to fall on the sidewalks below. Fall is always a special time on campus, and this Semester is no exception. Marked by changes, achievements, and additions, this Fall Semester has been inspiring to our Spartan community.

At the start of the Semester, we welcomed Dr. Vivian Aranda-Hughes, Dr. Meghan O’Neil, and Dr. Thomas (Wally) Wojciechowski to our tenure-stream faculty. We warmly welcomed Dr. Bilal Sevinc and Dr. Matthew Galasso as fixed-term assistant professors and have been fortunate to host Bostjan Slak as a Visiting Fulbright Scholar. Each of them has already made a positive impact on the culture and climate of our School and will continue to help us pursue our mission to advance justice.

We also welcomed many new undergraduate and graduate students into our program. This past year was the largest incoming class of students in Michigan State University’s history, and we are excited by the prospects of engaging with these new Spartans in ways that will expand the reach of our School for years to come.

 

Every Fall, we also announce the latest inductees into the School of Criminal Justice Wall of Fame. The Wall of Fame is reserved for the School’s faculty and alum who have stood out and impacted the field of Criminal Justice. This year, we are inducting Dr. Kristy Holtfreter (MSU SCJ alum, and Professor at Arizona State University) and Dr. Ed McGarrell (Emeritus Professor).

Dr. McGarrell and Dr. Holtfreter both exemplify the values that define the Spartan community and are most certainly deserving of this award.

 

Since the start of the Semester, several of our faculty and students received awards and fellowships from the American Society of Criminology (ASC), American Sociological Association (ASA), and the Bureau of Justice Assistance.

  • Dr. Meghan M. O’Neil received the 2024 Junior Scholar Award from the Drugs and Society Section of the American Sociological Association
  • Dr. Ed McGarrell received the Jerry Lee Lifetime Achievement Award. This award is jointly presented by the American Society of Criminology Division of Experimental Criminology and the Academy of Experimental Criminology.
  • Dr Ed McGarrell also received the Excellence in the Field of Criminal Justice Award from the Bureau of Justice Assistance for his dedicated research and technical assistance that has brought evidence-based practices to the field over the course of his career.
  • Kaelyn Sanders received an American Society of Criminology Ruth D. Peterson Fellowship for Racial and Ethnic Diversity.
  • Dr. Chris Melde has been named a Fellow of the Academy of Experimental Criminology in recognition of his significant contributions to the field of experimental criminology.
  • Dr. Carole Gibbs and Dr. Fiona Chan (alum from the School) have received the American Society of Criminology’s Division of White-Collar and Corporate Crime’s Outstanding Article or Book Chapter Award!
  • Tiana Gaudette has received the 2024 Student Paper Award from the American Society of Criminology (ASC) Division on Terrorism & Bias Crimes.
  • Dr. Jeremy Wilson received the 2024 Distinguished Scholar Award from the American Society of Criminology Division of Policing.
  • Jedidiah Knode received the 2024 Outstanding Student Article Award from the American Society of Criminology Division of Policing.
  • Dr. Tom Holt, Dr. Steve Chermak, Mae Griffith (alum), Dr. Noah Turner (alum), and their co-authors, received the Outstanding Peer-Reviewed Publication Award from the ASC Division of Cybercrime.

 

In addition, a number of our undergraduate students have received MSU’s Provost Undergraduate Research Initiative (PURI) Awards. These awards are used to fund undergraduate student research. We are happy to announce that Ana Murillo, Arden Henderson, Noah Andres, Alexa Banning, and Quincy Zhou all received PURI Awards and will be presenting their research this Spring at the annual University Undergraduate Research and Arts Forum.

Congratulations to all of the School’s members who have received awards this past Fall. We are proud of each and every one of you.

 

Fall 2024 also marked a bittersweet moment for the School. Melissa Chirstle, our Graduate Secretary for over two decades, retired from MSU and will begin a new chapter in her life. Together, we celebrated Melissa’s retirement and the impact she has had on the lives of countless Masters and Doctoral students who completed our programs. While we will certainly miss Melissa, we are excited for her as she embarks on this new journey.

As we move from Fall into Winter, we remain committed to building a Spartan environment that celebrates learning, research, and encourages community engagement.

 

Go green!

Chris Melde
Director and Professor
School of Criminal Justice, MSU