Meet Criminal Justice Studies Faculty
CJS Frequently Asked Questions
Director
Cicely J. Cottrell, PhD
Director, Criminal Justice Studies
Assistant Professor
[email protected]
Dr. Cicely J. Cottrell is a restorative justice trainer, educator and researcher. She mostly enjoys her role as an educator, where she challenges and supports her students in reimagining and reinventing the meaning of justice.
Dr. Cottrell has gained several years of criminal justice system experience in various agencies, such as the Kentucky Department of Corrections, Administrative Office of Kentucky Courts, and the United States House Committee on the Judiciary.
Because of these experiences, she teaches her students that a great deal of compassion and mercy are needed when making decisions that not only impact one’s freedom, but the ability for people to acquire their basic needs to survive, such as food, water, housing, education, health care, communication, and transportation. Dr. Cottrell agrees with Bryan Stevenson in that, “to be fully human, we must pay attention to suffering, poverty, unfairness, and injustice.”
Dr. Cottrell is currently researching and publishing in the areas of restorative justice, college student engagement, and youth homicides by police with intentions to push for accountability and transparency in law enforcement use of force policies and procedures. She received her PhD in Sociology and Criminology from Howard University with a certificate in Women’s Studies, her M.S. in Administration of Justice is from the University of Louisville, and her B.A. in Political Science is from Western Kentucky University.
Dr. Cottrell was active in the Breonna Taylor and police reform conversation; she’s appeared in the HuffPost’s “How Louisville Can Still Get Justice for Breonna Taylor,” on WLKY News’ “Professors: LMPD reforms in Breonna Taylor settlement show promise, shortcomings,” and on WFPL’s “In Conversation: The Breonna Taylor Decision and Its Aftermath.” Read more about Dr. Cottrell.
Faculty
Justin Turner, PhD
Assistant Professor, Criminal Justice Studies
Justin Turner earned his PhD in Criminology from Old Dominion University. He has taught a variety of courses covering the expanse of the criminal justice system, including Introduction to a Sociological Perspective on Criminology, Culture of Punishment, Juvenile Justice, Research Methods, Criminological Theory, and Sociology of Punishment. Intentionally far-reaching, his research includes the cultural weight that the death of a police officer is given when developing US criminal justice policy, the larger economic force of neoliberalism and how it rationalizes problematic and predatory ways to handle youth in confinement, and a broad focus on how the technologies and equipment now in the possession of the police have expanded the nature of “police control” high and wide, paying particular attention to how these technologies and equipment reshape the very nature of policing for the 21st century.
Amanda Roberts, MA
Amanda Roberts, MA, is a doctoral candidate in Criminal Justice at the University of Louisville. She received her MA in Criminology from Western Kentucky University, her BA in Psychology and BS in Administration of Justice from the University of Louisville. Her research interests focus on corrections and examining correctional staff both in the institutional and the community setting. Specifically, she is interested in the psychological effects of working in corrections and the prevention and mitigation of negative work-related outcomes through evidence-based practices. She has partnered with the Kentucky Department of Corrections on research projects designed to examine these issues. Her work has recently been published in Deviant Behavior and International Criminal Justice Review. Her interests also include criminal justice policy reform specifically focusing on correctional issues like reentry, overreliance on incarceration, and increasing use of evidence-based rehabilitative programming.
Paul Rosenblum, JD
Paul Rosenblum holds his JD from the University of Louisville and a BA in Psychology from Boston University. Since 2015 he has served as an adjunct professor teaching Constitutional Law, Introduction to Criminal Justice, Criminology, Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure, Rules of Evidence, Family Law, and Alternative Methods of Dispute Resolution at colleges in Kentucky and Maine. In addition to 10 years of private law practice and seven years as Assistant County Attorney with prosecutorial duties, Rosenblum has served as District Court Judge for Oldham, Henry and Trimble Counties in Kentucky. During his tenure, he had jurisdiction over criminal misdemeanor, traffic, limited civil, small claims, probate, disability and juvenile matters, and he developed a mediation resolution program through District Court. Rosenblum currently serves as a mediator for family, civil and criminal court cases.
Tija Jackson, MS
Tija Jackson is a proud native of Atchison, Kansas. She earned a bachelor’s in Criminal Justice from Friends University in Wichita, Kansas. As her passion for serving, fighting, and protecting the community intensified, she obtained a master’s degree in Justice Administration from The University of Louisville. Louisville has been home to Tija for more than twenty years. In those twenty years, she was employed with the Department of Juvenile Justice and The Louisville Metro Public Defender’s Office as a staff investigator. During her tenure with the Public Defender’s Office, she was licensed to become a Certified Criminal Defense Investigator, thus she is qualified as an expert witness for the defense in court proceedings. Shortly after the licensure, Ms. Jackson decided to establish her own Private Investigation firm: Jackson Investigations. Her company provides professional investigative services throughout Kentucky.
Marsha L. Mayes-Burton, MS
Marsha Lynn Mayes-Burton is a minister, author, speaker, seminar leader and social worker. She owns Circles of Peace LLC, which specializes in training individuals, families, corporations, organizations, and churches in dispute and conflict resolution skills/techniques, anger management, parenting skills, relationship coaching, and restorative practices. Marsha is a certified anger management specialist, a court-approved mediator, and a facilitator for Restorative Justice Louisville.
Marsha has a passion to teach youth, teens, and adults alternative ways to resolve disputes instead of resorting to violence or other criminal behavior. It is also her passion to help individuals who have been victims of child sexual abuse to change their perspective of the trauma and view themselves as victors or conquerors of sexual abuse. Marsha conducts workshops and seminars to convey her messages of reconciliation, healing, and forgiveness to all persons.
Marsha holds the following degrees: master’s degrees in Dispute & Conflict Resolution (Sullivan University), Social Work (Spalding University), and Divinity with a concentration in Black Church Studies (Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary). At present Marsha is actively pursuing a Doctor of Ministry Degree.
Director
Cicely J. Cottrell, PhD
Director, Criminal Justice Studies
Assistant Professor
[email protected]
Dr. Cicely J. Cottrell is a restorative justice trainer, educator and researcher. She mostly enjoys her role as an educator, where she challenges and supports her students in reimagining and reinventing the meaning of justice.
Dr. Cottrell has gained several years of criminal justice system experience in various agencies, such as the Kentucky Department of Corrections, Administrative Office of Kentucky Courts, and the United States House Committee on the Judiciary.
Because of these experiences, she teaches her students that a great deal of compassion and mercy are needed when making decisions that not only impact one’s freedom, but the ability for people to acquire their basic needs to survive, such as food, water, housing, education, health care, communication, and transportation. Dr. Cottrell agrees with Bryan Stevenson in that, “to be fully human, we must pay attention to suffering, poverty, unfairness, and injustice.”
Dr. Cottrell is currently researching and publishing in the areas of restorative justice, college student engagement, and youth homicides by police with intentions to push for accountability and transparency in law enforcement use of force policies and procedures. She received her PhD in Sociology and Criminology from Howard University with a certificate in Women’s Studies, her M.S. in Administration of Justice is from the University of Louisville, and her B.A. in Political Science is from Western Kentucky University.
Dr. Cottrell was active in the Breonna Taylor and police reform conversation; she’s appeared in the HuffPost’s “How Louisville Can Still Get Justice for Breonna Taylor,” on WLKY News’ “Professors: LMPD reforms in Breonna Taylor settlement show promise, shortcomings,” and on WFPL’s “In Conversation: The Breonna Taylor Decision and Its Aftermath.” Read more about Dr. Cottrell.
Faculty
Justin Turner, PhD
Assistant Professor, Criminal Justice Studies
Justin Turner earned his PhD in Criminology from Old Dominion University. He has taught a variety of courses covering the expanse of the criminal justice system, including Introduction to a Sociological Perspective on Criminology, Culture of Punishment, Juvenile Justice, Research Methods, Criminological Theory, and Sociology of Punishment. Intentionally far-reaching, his research includes the cultural weight that the death of a police officer is given when developing US criminal justice policy, the larger economic force of neoliberalism and how it rationalizes problematic and predatory ways to handle youth in confinement, and a broad focus on how the technologies and equipment now in the possession of the police have expanded the nature of “police control” high and wide, paying particular attention to how these technologies and equipment reshape the very nature of policing for the 21st century.
Amanda Roberts, MA
Amanda Roberts, MA, is a doctoral candidate in Criminal Justice at the University of Louisville. She received her MA in Criminology from Western Kentucky University, her BA in Psychology and BS in Administration of Justice from the University of Louisville. Her research interests focus on corrections and examining correctional staff both in the institutional and the community setting. Specifically, she is interested in the psychological effects of working in corrections and the prevention and mitigation of negative work-related outcomes through evidence-based practices. She has partnered with the Kentucky Department of Corrections on research projects designed to examine these issues. Her work has recently been published in Deviant Behavior and International Criminal Justice Review. Her interests also include criminal justice policy reform specifically focusing on correctional issues like reentry, overreliance on incarceration, and increasing use of evidence-based rehabilitative programming.
Paul Rosenblum, JD
Paul Rosenblum holds his JD from the University of Louisville and a BA in Psychology from Boston University. Since 2015 he has served as an adjunct professor teaching Constitutional Law, Introduction to Criminal Justice, Criminology, Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure, Rules of Evidence, Family Law, and Alternative Methods of Dispute Resolution at colleges in Kentucky and Maine. In addition to 10 years of private law practice and seven years as Assistant County Attorney with prosecutorial duties, Rosenblum has served as District Court Judge for Oldham, Henry and Trimble Counties in Kentucky. During his tenure, he had jurisdiction over criminal misdemeanor, traffic, limited civil, small claims, probate, disability and juvenile matters, and he developed a mediation resolution program through District Court. Rosenblum currently serves as a mediator for family, civil and criminal court cases.
Tija Jackson, MS
Tija Jackson is a proud native of Atchison, Kansas. She earned a bachelor’s in Criminal Justice from Friends University in Wichita, Kansas. As her passion for serving, fighting, and protecting the community intensified, she obtained a master’s degree in Justice Administration from The University of Louisville. Louisville has been home to Tija for more than twenty years. In those twenty years, she was employed with the Department of Juvenile Justice and The Louisville Metro Public Defender’s Office as a staff investigator. During her tenure with the Public Defender’s Office, she was licensed to become a Certified Criminal Defense Investigator, thus she is qualified as an expert witness for the defense in court proceedings. Shortly after the licensure, Ms. Jackson decided to establish her own Private Investigation firm: Jackson Investigations. Her company provides professional investigative services throughout Kentucky.
Marsha L. Mayes-Burton, MS
Marsha Lynn Mayes-Burton is a minister, author, speaker, seminar leader and social worker. She owns Circles of Peace LLC, which specializes in training individuals, families, corporations, organizations, and churches in dispute and conflict resolution skills/techniques, anger management, parenting skills, relationship coaching, and restorative practices. Marsha is a certified anger management specialist, a court-approved mediator, and a facilitator for Restorative Justice Louisville.
Marsha has a passion to teach youth, teens, and adults alternative ways to resolve disputes instead of resorting to violence or other criminal behavior. It is also her passion to help individuals who have been victims of child sexual abuse to change their perspective of the trauma and view themselves as victors or conquerors of sexual abuse. Marsha conducts workshops and seminars to convey her messages of reconciliation, healing, and forgiveness to all persons.
Marsha holds the following degrees: master’s degrees in Dispute & Conflict Resolution (Sullivan University), Social Work (Spalding University), and Divinity with a concentration in Black Church Studies (Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary). At present Marsha is actively pursuing a Doctor of Ministry Degree.