Graduate Research Assistant

Teneshia Thurman is a doctoral candidate in the Criminology, Law and Society department at George Mason University. She currently works as a research assistant at the Center for Advancing Correctional Excellence (ACE!).

Degrees

• Seattle University: M.A in Criminal Justice
• The Ohio State University: BA in Sociology and Criminology

Research Interests

• Identity and crime
• Gender and treatment programs
• Gender and crime
• Trauma and victimology
• Implementation science and translational research.

Current Projects

• SUSTAIN
• Implementation Science Toolkit

What is so fascinating about one research project you are working on at ACE!

I have had the privilege to work on several different projects at ACE! What I find most interesting and rewarding is working with different agencies to help address specific issues.

How do you think working on ACE! projects will make you a better researcher?

As a researcher at ACE! I have worked on several projects that involve partnerships. I have learned/developed the skills to ask important questions and clean and analyze data, however one of the most important skills I developed is working with external partners. In the field of criminal justice, we are not only communicating research to academics but to agencies that are doing the work daily. Thinking about agencies and communicating research has made me a better researcher.

If you had to give advice to an agency about evidence-based practices, what would that be.

Know your agency. Deciding on an evidence-based practice to adopt is one step toward addressing a problem. Evidence-based practices are only as good as the implementation strategy that is adopted. All evidence-based practices have to be grounded in the agency's environment. Knowing your agency means having knowledge of current practices and procedures, the workload of staff, and resources (internal and external of the agency) that are needed to make sure the desired outcome of the EBP is achieved.