Stories about gangs and gang violence are often fodder for movie and TV scripts. O’Neill Associate Professor Dena Carson says she watched those shows growing up in a small town in southeast Kansas. True crime television is what sparked her interest in criminal justice. Now, she’s using her research skills to look beyond the portrayals… Read more »
Tag: Faculty bio
Nathan Cook: Environmental policy in the Global South
From his home base in Indianapolis, O’Neill Assistant Professor Nathan Cook is working on projects from around the world, specifically in what is known as the Global South—what some call the developing world. In countries throughout Asia, Africa, and Latin America, Cook looks at common-pool resources—things like groundwater basins, shared irrigation systems, rainforests, and other… Read more »
Courtney Page-Tan: Preparing communities and students for the future
When disaster strikes, a community’s resilience is put to the test. Whether the cause is natural, political, man-made, or technological, Courtney Page-Tan works to understand how communities can withstand, recover from, and even thrive amid and after disasters. Her interest in community resilience can be traced back to a single moment, one the entire world… Read more »
Vernise Estorcien: Reaching youth through police mentoring
Vernise Estorcien is a long way from her hometown of Nassau, The Bahamas. After earning her Ph.D. in Florida, she’s now even farther north—1,138 miles from home, to be exact—and will join the O’Neill School faculty for the 2023–24 academic year. Estorcien says she came to the O’Neill School in Indianapolis because she knew it… Read more »
Tamra Wright: Understanding systems to help individuals
When O’Neill lecturer Tamra Wright was a child, she wanted to become a lawyer focused on civil rights and helping others. “My parents’ upbringing involved socioeconomic challenges,” she says. “They were always very open with me about their lived experiences and never hid it. But they also emphasized the support and love they had from… Read more »