Promotion to Professor
Congratulations on your promotion!
Eric Madfis, PhD., Professor, School of Social Work and Criminal Justice
Eric Madfis, Ph.D., is a Professor of Criminal Justice at the University of Washington Tacoma, where his research focuses on the causes and prevention of school violence, hate crime, and mass murder. He received his Ph.D. in Sociology from Northeastern University in Boston, where he was a Research Associate at the Brudnick Center on Violence and Conflict. He often teaches courses on Criminological Theory, Sociology of Deviance and Social Control, Criminal Homicide, Juvenile Justice, and Diversity and Social Justice in Criminology.
Promotion to Associate Professor
Congratulations on your promotion!
Claudia Sellmaier, Ph.D., Associate Professor, School of Social Work and Criminal Justice
Dr. Sellmaier incorporates high-impact practices such as service learning and independent mentored projects in her teaching. Each of her classes has some component of community engagement, serve learning or “real world” application built into the curriculum. Sellmaier regularly receives strong course evaluations from her student who report feeling respected, included, supported and encouraged to try new things. During her time at UW Tacoma Sellmaier has created and implemented new coursework at both the undergraduate and graduate level in the field of disability studies.
Still Doing Life: 22 Lifers, 25 Years Later
Barb Toews, Ph.D., Associate Professor, School of Social Work and Criminal Justice
Still Doing Life is a publication and photography exhibition by Barb Toews and Howard Zehr which features portraits and interviews with 22 men and women incarcerated with life without parole in Pennsylvania at two points in time during their incarceration - mid-1990s and 2017.
The Still Doing Life photography exhibit is on display in the Powerhouse, Snoqualmie Library (SNO, 1st floor) from September 25 through December 1, 2023 during library hours. Please join us for a moderated discussion with John “Freddie” Nole, one of the “lifers” in the book who has been released, on Wednesday, October 11, 2023 from 12:30 - 1:20 PM in the Powerhouse.
University of Washington Royalty Research Fund Awardee
Anindita Bhattacharya, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, School of Social Work and Criminal Justice
Dr. Bhattacharya was awarded a Royalty Research Fund Award for her research: Understanding Help-Seeking Pathways among Racially Minoritized Women Experiencing Intimate Partner Violence: A Longitudinal Investigation.
The Royalty Research Fund (RRF) is a competitive awards program that provides research support to University of Washington faculty. Dr. Bhattacharya was the only faculty from UW Tacoma awarded an RFF this round.
Media Coverage
Graduation Equity Webinar
Getting Proactive with Threat Assessments
Join Dr. Eric Madfis and other education leaders as they discuss threat assessments. Accurate implementation of threat assessment programs helps increase support for students in need and emphasizes a supportive and healthy school climate.
Dr. JaeRan Kim
BBC Future Family Tree episode highlights SSWCJ Faculty JaeRan Kim
Dr. JaeRan Kim provides expertise on adoption breakdown
SSWCJ Associate Professor JaeRan Kim is quoted in this story by a BBC writer who is himself a parent of an adopted child. Dr. Kim refers to the lack of research on adoption post-childhood, and discusses a concept called adoption breakdown (where adoptive parents don’t end up raising their adopted children to adulthood).
Dr. Kenneth Cruz
Criminal Justice faculty weigh in on Tacoma Crime Plan
The News Tribune recently published an in-depth article on Chief of Police Avery Moore's new crime plan. UW Tacoma criminologists Ken Cruz and Janelle Hawes reviewed the plan and voiced their concerns including lack of involvement by the community, incomplete data, and not addressing the root causes of violence. Read the full TNT article for more.
Ken Cruz researches community-based crime prevention and Janelle Hawes specializes in data analysis. They were part of a group of five UW Tacoma CJ faculty who presented a report on preventing local youth gun violence to city officials and the City Council earlier in the year.
Dr. Janelle Hawes
Recent coverage for Dr. Eric Madfis
In the wake of our nation's most recent devastating acts of violence, Dr. Eric Madfis' expertise on school and environmental threat assessment, violence, and mass shootings continues to be sought on a local and national level. Over the past couple of weeks, Eric has been featured and/or quoted by the Washington Post, NPR, HBO's "Last Week Tonight with John Oliver", and The News Tribune.
Dr. Eric Madfis
Vern Harner podcast on Paw'd Defiance
UW Tacoma Assistant Professor Vern Harner discusses the importance of having trans researchers conduct research about the trans community. Harner is trans and played an important role in getting the University of Washington to change its diploma name policy, which formerly only allowed full legal names on diplomas.
Rolling Up His Sleeves
Charles Emlet's experience as a social worker lead him to UW Tacoma and a career that changed our understanding of aging in vulnerable communities.
Dr. Charles Emlet
The Accumulated Wisdom of Tom Diehm
After spending 24 years at UW Tacoma connecting social work students to agencies, Tom Diehm knows something about community building and the costs of field experience.
Dr. Tom Diehm
Faculty Research
Cruz, Kenneth: Criminology, Law and Society
Hawes, Janelle: Criminology, Education, Marginalized Populations and Mental Health
Madfis, Eric: School Violence; School Discipline; Mass Shootings; Hate Crime and Supremacist Groups; Deviance and Social Control; Critical Criminology; Masculinities
Myers, Randy: Youth Justice, Crime and Public Policy, Criminological Theory, Punishment and Inequality
Toews, Barb: Restorative Justice; Environmental Design and Psychosocial Behavioral and Judicial Outcomes
Bhattacharya, Anindita: Global Mental Health, Cross-Cultural Qualitative Research, Gender-Based Violence, Trauma, Gender Disparities and Health Equity among Women, Community Mental Health Interventions
Casey, Erin: Gender-Based Violence and Prevention
Emlet, Charles: Gerontological Social Work, HIV and Aging, LGBTQ Aging
Harris, Marian: Child Welfare (including but not limited to the following areas: mother-child attachment, childhood trauma, racial disproportionality and disparities in child welfare, children of incarcerated parents and kinship care).
Furman, Rich: Men at Risk, Transnational Social Work Practice, Qualitative Research, The Arts and Humanities in Social Work Practice, Research and Education
Garner, Michelle: Spirituality & Social Work
Kim, JaeRan: Adoption, Disabilities
Sellmaier, Claudia: Economic Security, Work-Life Fit
