Faculty List

Vincent Webb

Director of the Criminal Justice Center and Dean

Dr. Vincent J. Webb was appointed Dean and Director of the George J. Beto Criminal Justice Center May 2006. In that capacity he oversees one of the largest academic programs in criminal justice in the nation, as well as a highly integrated center which incorporates a number of research and professional training institutes.

Michael Vaughn

Assistant Dean for Graduate Studies / Director of the CJ Doctoral Program

Dr. Vaughn joined the College of Criminal Justice at Sam Houston State University in May 2006. Prior to that, he was Professor of Criminal Justice at Georgia State University from 1993 to 2006. He has served as Book Review Editor of the Journal of Criminal Justice Education (1993-1996), Editor of Police Forum (1997-2001), Editor of the Criminal Justice Review (2001-2005), and Editor of the International Criminal Justice Review (2001-2005). Vaughn's research interests are primarily related to legal issues in criminal justice, specializing in the area of legal liabilities of criminal justice personnel. Vaughn has been recognized in Marquis Who's Who in American Law, Who's Who in the World, Who's Who Among America's Teachers, and Who's Who in America. He holds a Ph.D. in Criminal Justice, an Ed.S. in Human Services, Public Services, and Criminal Justice, and an M.S. and B.S. in Criminal Justice.

Gaylene Armstrong

Associate Professor

Dr. Armstrong received her Ph.D. and M.A. in Criminal Justice from the University of Maryland and her B.A. in Psychology from University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada. Dr. Armstrong has expertise with both adult and juvenile offender populations and has evaluated programs and policies for specialized populations, such as sex offenders and female offenders. In 2003, Dr. Armstrong was nominated for the Carnegie Foundation's U.S. Professor of the Year Award for excellence in teaching, and in 2004 she was awarded the American Society of Criminology Division on Corrections and Sentencing Young Scholar Award for her research. In 2007, Dr. Armstrong was awarded the Academy of Experimental Criminology's Young Experimental Scholar Award.

Steven Cuvelier

Associate Professor

Jerry Dowling

Professor

Dr. Dowling has been a professor in the College of Criminal Justice for over three decades. He holds a Doctor of Jurisprudence degree from the College of Law at the University of Tennessee. Prior to coming to SHSU, he served as a Special Agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation. In 2001, Professor Dowling was awarded the SHSU Excellence in Teaching Award. His current research interests include criminal law and procedure and the efficient and effective use of manpower in law enforcement agencies. He is author of textbooks on pre-trial criminal procedure and criminal investigation. His most recent text, Texas Criminal Law: Principles and Practices, was published in 2008.

Randy Garner

Professor

Dr. Garner holds a B.S., M.A., and Ph.D. in Psychology, with specialization in the area of Social Psychology, and a doctoral minor in Organizational Behavior and Management. Dr. Garner was the founding Director of the Texas Regional Community Policing Institute (TRCPI) and served as the Executive Director of the Law Enforcement Management Institute of Texas (LEMIT) before his appointment as Associate Dean. Prior to moving into academia, Dr. Garner spent 30 years in law enforcement service and has worked in all divisions and levels of command. He was appointed as the Chief of Police for a Houston-area agency in the mid 1980's where he was active in a variety of national, state, and local law enforcement organizations. Dr. Garner has taught with or is a graduate of all of the major police command colleges in the country, including the F.B.I. National Academy, the Graduate Management Institute, the Leadership and Command College (LEMIT), the Institute for Law Enforcement Administration, and the Southern Police Institute (University of Louisville).

Jurg Gerber

Professor

Dr. Gerber has been a member of the College's faculty since 1990 and has held a number of administrative positions, including Associate Dean for Academic Administration (1998-2000), Assistant Dean for Graduate Programs (1997-98), and Assistant Dean for Undergraduate Programs (1994-97). His specialty areas of expertise include criminology, white-collar crime, drug policy, and comparative criminology. He has co-edited two books on drug policy and has published on white-collar crime, comparative criminology, and criminal justice education. Gerber's extensive international travels and professional experiences include visiting professorships in Switzerland as well as a Fulbright grant in Kaliningrad, Russia. He holds an M.A. and Ph.D. in Sociology and a B.A. in Government.

Howard Henderson

Assistant Professor

Dr. Henderson joined the College of Criminal Justice in 2006. Along with a Ph.D. in criminal justice, he holds a Master's in Criminal Justice and a B.S. in Criminal Justice Administration. His current research interests are probationer and prisoner recidivism through analysis of risk and need assessments, as well as examinations of racial/ethnic differences in criminal justice processing. Some of his research has appeared in The Journal of Criminal Justice and Law Review, Journal of Contemporary Issues in Criminology and the Social Sciences, the International Journal of Crime, Criminal Justice, and Law, the Journal of Texas Probation, and Journal of Applied Sociology/Sociological Practice. Prior to his academic career, Dr. Henderson was a certified community supervision officer where he supervised felony and misdemeanor offenders. He also has spent some time as a case manager of juvenile conduct and sex-offending youth.

Dennis Longmire

Professor

Dr. Longmire joined the faculty of the College of Criminal Justice in 1984 and was promoted to the rank of Professor in 1991. During his tenure here he has served as the Assistant Dean for Graduate Programs (1984 - 1986) and Associate Dean for Academic Administration (1986 - 1993). His academic specialties include: the death penalty; public perceptions of crime, criminality, and criminal Justice; classification of offenders; and criminological theory. In addition to his teaching responsibilities, Dr. Longmire serves as the Director of the College of Criminal Justice's Survey Research Program where he supervises the completion of regular surveys assessing citizens' attitudes about crime, criminality, and the administration of justice. Dr. Longmire was the 2003-04 Distinguished Lecturer at Eastern Kentucky University's Department of Criminal Justice and Police Studies; the Department of Correctional and Juvenile Justice Studies; and the College of Justice & Safety. He holds a Ph.D. in Criminology and Sociology (Socialization Theory), an M.A. in Criminology, and a B.S. in Sociology and Psychology.

Willard Oliver

Professor

Dr. Oliver joined the College faculty in 2003. His areas of expertise include Policing (e.g. stress, small-town and rural, community policing, Homeland Security), public policy of crime & criminal justice and history of criminal justice. In addition to his teaching and publishing work, Oliver is an Instructor for LEMIT's INCOSIT program, as well as an instructor for the International Law Enforcement Academy in Roswell, New Mexico. He has served as President of the Southwest Association of Criminal Justice and as Editor of the Southwestern Journal of Criminal Justice. A veteran of the Persian Gulf War: Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm, Oliver is a major in the U.S. Army Reserves. He holds a Ph.D. and M.S. in Political Science, as well as an M.S. and B.S. in Criminal Justice.

Melissa Tackett-Gibson

Assistant Professor

Dr. Tackett-Gibson holds a Ph.D. and M.A. in Sociology, and a B.A. in Political Science. She was appointed Assistant Professor in the College of Criminal Justice in fall 2006. Her specialty areas include drug use and abuse, organizations and evaluation, and qualitative methodologies. Tackett-Gibson is currently developing a study of drug use, mental health, and high-risk behaviors among residents in the most highly populated areas of Texas. This follows a similar study of drug and alcohol use among college students in the state. The later survey was conducted for the Department of State Health Services, Substance Abuse Division and with the Public Policy Research Institute at Texas A&M, where she had served as Assistant Research Scientist since 2002. Additional work-in-progress includes an examination of the role of prescription drugs in drug use initiation and an ongoing analysis of discourse from an online harm reduction website.

Rita Watkins

Executive Director

Dr. Rita J. Villarreal-Watkins is the Executive Director of the Law Enforcement Management Institute of Texas (LEMIT). Before taking over as Executive Director in 2001, she served as the Project Manager for LEMIT's Leadership Command College. Her academic background includes a Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice from Sam Houston State University, a Master of Public Administration from Texas A&M University, and an Ed.D. in Educational Leadership and Counseling from Sam Houston State University. As the Executive Director of LEMIT, Watkins' responsibilities include the administrative supervision of the institute's programs and operations. She also oversees curriculum development, human resource management and supervision, fiscal planning, strategic planning, and international development initiatives. Watkins worked in the criminal justice field for 17 years prior to joining the LEMIT staff.

David Webb

Assistant Director

Dr. Webb is Assistant Director of LEMIT. He also serves as the Program Director of LEMIT's Incident Command Simulation Training (INCOSIT) Program. In addition to his administrative duties at the Criminal Justice Center, he also serves as Director of the National Resource Center for Police Corrections Partnerships, Faculty Member of the Illinois Law Enforcement Executive Institute, Lecturer for the International Law Enforcement Academy in Roswell, New Mexico, and Doctoral Teaching Fellow for the College of Criminal Justice. Webb joined the CJ Center after a distinguished career with the Police Service in the United Kingdom, where his last position was Chief Superintendent of Police. In senior police administrative duties, he played active roles in counter-terrorism planning -including marine counter-terrorism (classified)- worked with overseas police departments in an advisory capacity on strategic planning and developed artificial-intelligence-based computer systems to generate profiles of terrorists hiding within community populations. He holds a Ph.D. in Criminal Justice.