Danielle Boisvert
Danielle Boisvert is an assistant professor of criminal justice. She joined the faculty at Penn State Harrisburg after receiving her doctorate from the University of Cincinnati. She earned her master's degree in forensic science from The George Washington University and graduated with honors from the University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada, in the bachelor of sciences in biology program.
Dr. Boisvert's key research interests include life-course and biosocial criminology and focuses on the examination of genetic and environmental influences on a variety of delinquent and criminal behaviors. From 2004 to 2006, Dr. Boisvert worked for the University of Cincinnati as a distance learning facilitator in the online master's program in criminal justice, and from 2006 through 2009, as a teaching and/or graduate assistant in the division of criminal justice.
Dr. Boisvert has published work in many journals including the Journal of Affective Disorders, Journal of Criminal Justice Education, Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice, Drug and Alcohol Dependence, Criminal Justice and Behavior, and Behavioral and Brain Functions.
Shaun L. Gabbidon
Shaun Gabbidon is a professor of criminal justice at Penn State Harrisburg. Prior to this appointment, he served as an adjunct assistant professor of criminal justice at the University of Baltimore and assistant professor of criminal justice at Coppin State College.
Dr. Gabbidon attained a doctorate in criminology from Indiana University of Pennsylvania and a master's degree in criminal justice from the University of Baltimore. He has served as a fellow at Harvard University's W. E. B. DuBois Institute for Afro-American Research.
In 2005, the American Society of Criminology's division on People of Color and Crime presented Dr. Gabbidon with their highest award, the Coramae R. Mann Award, for contributions to the study of race, crime, and justice.
James M. Ruiz
James M. Ruiz received a doctorate in criminal justice from Sam Houston State University and a master's degree in criminal justice from Northeast Louisiana University.
He currently serves as an associate professor of criminal justice at Penn State Harrisburg. Prior to this appointment, he served as an assistant professor of criminal justice at Westfield State College, a teaching fellow at Sam Houston State University, and an assistant professor of criminal justice at The University of Southwestern Louisiana.
From 1968 to 1985 Dr. Ruiz served as a police officer with the New Orleans Police Department, rising to the rank of platoon commander in New Orleans' Second District. He was also a platoon commander in the emergency medical services division from which he retired.
Dr. Ruiz won the James A. Jordan Jr. award for teaching excellence from Penn State Harrisburg in 2004. He currently serves as a research and data analysis consultant to the Mifflin County Police/Partnership Program.
He is the author of The Black Hood of the Ku Klux Klan and a co-editor of The Handbook of Police Administration. Dr. Ruiz is also on the editorial board of Criminal Justice and Law Review.
Don Hummer
Don Hummer is an assistant professor of criminal justice at Penn State Harrisburg. He received a doctorate in social science-criminal justice from Michigan State University and a master's degree in administration of justice from Shippensburg University.
Dr. Hummer served as a co-consultant for a project to assess the current needs and technology uses for the Lawrence Police Department in Massachusetts. In 2001, Dr. Hummer also advised the Lowell Police Department's juvenile crime analysis unit (Massachusetts) in creating a database of criminal offenders and in interpreting the results using computer-based analysis software.
Dr. Hummer is a co-editor of The Handbook of Police Administration.
Barbara A. Sims
Barbara Sims earned a doctorate in criminal justice from Sam Houston State University and a master's degree in criminal justice from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. She is a professor of criminal justice at Penn State Harrisburg where she serves as program coordinator of both the criminal justice undergraduate and graduate programs.
Dr. Sims earned the Critical Criminologist of the Year Award from the Critical Criminology Division of the American Society of Criminology in 2004; she also won the James A. Jordan Jr. Teaching Award from Penn State Harrisburg in 2002. She was nominated for the 2005–06 Penn State's teaching fellow award; Penn State Harrisburg's 2005–06 diversity award; and faculty service award.
She currently serves as a consultant to the Mifflin County Police/Probation Partnership Program, the Pennsylvania Sex Offenders Management Team, and the Center of Schools and Communities.
Dr. Sims is editor of Substance Abuse Treatment with Correctional Clients: Practical Implications for Institutional and Community Settings, and co-editor of Handbook of Juvenile Justice: Theory and Practice.
Jennifer Sumner
Jennifer Sumner joined the faculty at Penn State Harrisburg as an assistant professor of criminal justice after completing a Ph.D. in criminology, law and society at the University of California, Irvine. She received an M.A. in criminal justice at Rutgers University in New Jersey and B.A. in sociology at Boston University.
Dr. Sumner's research interests include the theory of punishment; correctional policy, practice, and culture; and gender, sexuality, and the criminal justice system. Her current research examines transgender inmate culture in California prisons. Sumner was twice awarded the Gil Geis Award for research excellence through the Department of Criminology, Law and Society at UCI.
Dr. Sumner has published in Criminal Justice Policy Review and Journal of Contemporary Justice, and is co-author of two reports to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation on two large-scale studies of violence and victimization in California prisons for which she serves as project manager.
