- University News Archive - ��Vlog��ý Little Rock

Women to Watch at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock 2022: Molly Smith

John Hill — Tue, 22 Mar 2022 13:32:12 +0000

In celebration of Women’s History Month, ��Vlog��ý Little Rock is profiling women in leadership positions who are making a difference at the university and in the community. The next Woman to Watch at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock of 2022 is Dr. Molly Smith, assistant professor of criminal justice in the School of Criminal Justice and Criminology. Tell us about yourself and your background. I’m originally from Houston, Texas, although I lived overseas in Australia for a few years while I was growing up. My family has always been super tight-knit and supportive, and I’m grateful for the fact that we still talk almost every day. I received my B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. from Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas, where I discovered a passion for teaching, research, and working with student groups. Even though I’m a proud Texan, I absolutely love living in Little Rock! There’s such a great variety of things to do here, from outdoor activities to places to eat or meet up with friends. What is your current position and professional duties at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock? I’m currently an assistant professor in the School of Criminal Justice and Criminology (SCJC). I teach a variety of classes in our undergraduate and graduate programs, but my favorite is Introduction to Criminal Justice because I get to introduce undergraduate students from a variety of majors to the range of opportunities that come with getting a degree in criminal justice. My research focuses primarily on human trafficking, sexual victimization, and correctional healthcare. I’ve published several articles in peer-reviewed journals over the years, including “Criminology,” “Journal of Interpersonal Violence,” and “Journal of Correctional Health Care.” Many of these publications were with graduate students. I’m very passionate about student mentorship, and I’m fortunate that my position at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock affords me the opportunity to work with both them and undergraduate students on research projects. Several of my undergraduate students have additionally won competitive state-wide Student Undergraduate Research Fellowships from the Arkansas Department of Higher Education, allowing them to present the findings of their research at national conferences. In addition to research and teaching, I also am very involved with the Southwestern Association of Criminal Justice (SWACJ), which is our regional criminal justice organization. I’ve served on SWACJ’s Executive Board for four years, currently as both the First Vice President and Communications Liaison. In 2023, which will be my presidential year, I will be hosting our organization’s annual meeting here in Little Rock, and I’m really excited to show all my SWACJ colleagues everything our city has to offer! What brought you to ��Vlog��ý Little Rock? When I graduated with my Ph.D. I really wanted to join a department that emphasized a balance between teaching, research, and service. I honestly didn’t know much about ��Vlog��ý Little Rock before I applied, but the more I learned, the more excited I got about potentially working here. I really enjoy the fact that the small class sizes at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock give me the opportunity to get to know my students better and develop one-on-one connections. The variety of degree programs offered in SCJC, from an associate degree to a Ph.D., means that I also get to work with students in all stages of their academic careers. As the flagship criminal justice program in the state, our school furthermore has amazing connections with government and local agencies, allowing us to work alongside stakeholders to effect real change in the criminal justice system. You’re involved in some exciting criminal justice research initiatives. Can you tell us more about your projects? I’m working on a lot of exciting research projects right now! I just published an article in the “Journal of Correctional Health Care” concerning how correctional medicine contracting structures were related to the rates of reported COVID-19 diagnoses and deaths within correctional systems across the United States. This was a joint effort with Dr. Marc Glidden, who graduated with his Ph.D. in Criminal Justice from ��Vlog��ý Little Rock in 2019, and is the first in a line of research that I have been working on concerning the disproportionate impact of the pandemic within correctional facilities. I’m also thrilled to be working on a comprehensive evaluation of culture and climate within the Arkansas Department of Corrections, spearheaded by SCJC’s Dr. Mary Parker. This team effort also includes Dr. Bob Lytle and Cassidy Mitchell, one of our Ph.D. students. Over the next few years we will be surveying and holding focus groups with ADC inmates, their friends/family, staff, and volunteers to gain valuable insight that will be used to shape the future of corrections in Arkansas. Working with graduate students on research is extremely important to me, and I’m very happy that my position at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock affords me the opportunity to do this. Some of these projects include an examination of Black Muslims’ perceptions of police interactions and defunding with SCJC Ph.D. student Arsala Khan, and an analysis of the differences in sexual intimate partner violence perpetration according to sexual orientation with SCJC Ph.D. student Cassidy Mitchell. What woman has inspired you the most and why? I have always been fortunate to be surrounded by strong women, many of which have broken through gender barriers to reach great success. I would be remiss if I only mentioned one, as there are two that have truly inspired me to become the woman that I am today. First and foremost, my mother has always been a massive part of my life and one of my biggest champions. She had a thriving career as a mechanical engineer in the 1970s and 1980s, something that was relatively uncommon then, yet she chose to stay home and take care of my brother and I as we were growing up. Her sacrifice and dedication towards our personal development and fulfillment is something that has always been very inspiring to me, as it shows the true range of capabilities that we women have and the impact that we can have on others’ lives. The second person is Vicki Hollub. “Aunt Vicki,” as I like to call her, is one of my extremely close family friends and the very first female CEO of a major oil company. Like my mother, she rose through the ranks of a highly male-dominated field to achieve great success – not because she was a woman, but because of her intellect, wit, and passion for her career. She’s ranked on Fortune’s Most Powerful Women list and regularly meets with the U.S. President, foreign heads of state, and other Fortune 500 CEOs; yet you would never know it if you met her. She is one of the friendliest, humblest, and most hardworking people I have ever known. It is these qualities that I want to be known for and inspire in other women as well – not just a passion for success, but also humility, compassion, and generosity. How have you adapted to working in a world with COVID-19? I think that the COVID-19 pandemic is going to have lasting implications within higher education. In particular, there has been a huge shift towards online course delivery and the implementation of new technologies in the classroom. While there has definitely been a learning curve involved in this, I think the payoff is absolutely going to be worth it. College education is now significantly more accessible than it has been in the past, and there’s a continuing push towards incorporating more student-friendly strategies in the classroom. One thing I’ve really learned in the past few years is the importance of self-care. The pandemic has been stressful for everyone, and it’s critical to remember to look out for our own well-being. For me, this has meant focusing on things that make me feel fulfilled in my personal life, such as yoga, spending time with family, keeping in touch with friends, and hobbies. I’ll admit that it’s been a struggle to incorporate wellness into my everyday routine, but this has truly centered me and made it easier to stay productive and focused while I’m fulfilling my professional duties. What advice would you give to the next generation of female leaders? Never apologize for being a strong and powerful woman. Generations of women fought tooth and nail for our ability to have a voice, so it’s important that we honor their struggle by using ours to better ourselves and the world. I also believe it is important to lift other women up and help them achieve their goals, no matter if those are to be a successful businesswoman, career academic, homemaker, mother, or any combination of the above. Women are capable of so much, and while achieving our own personal success is undoubtedly fulfilling, it pales in comparison to helping others achieve theirs. Name something about yourself that most people would be surprised to learn. I am absolutely TERRIBLE at math. I lived overseas in Australia for a few years while I was growing up, and I temporarily skipped a few grades due to the shift from an American school calendar (August-May) to year-round schooling (January-December). Because of this, I never formally learned how to do basic multiplication or division, which has always been funny since both of my parents were engineers and my brother is now a plastic surgeon. They’re all great at math, and one of their favorite ways of joking around with me is to ask me a basic multiplication question, such as “what is 6 x 8,” because I usually don’t know the answer. I guess the joke’s on them though, because I do a lot of math when running statistical analyses these days – granted, my trusty phone calculator is always by my side. Is there anything else you’d like to add? “I never dreamed about success. I worked for it.” – Estee Lauder

��Vlog��ý Little Rock awarded $453,000 contract from Arkansas Department of Corrections to study state’s prison culture and climate

John Hill — Wed, 23 Jun 2021 16:45:59 +0000

The Arkansas Department of Corrections has awarded the University of Arkansas at Little Rock a multi-year contract of more than $453,000 to study and assess prison culture and climate in Arkansas. “This multi-year project, funded by existing DOC revenues, will be the first of its kind done on the State’s adult corrections system,” said Solomon Graves, cabinet secretary of Arkansas Department of Corrections. “It will not only review operational issues within the Divisions of Correction and Community Correction, along with the Correctional School District, it will study issues related to staff recruitment, retention, and the efficacy of offender programs.” ��Vlog��ý Little Rock criminal justice professors Mary Parker, Robert Lytle, and Molly Smith will lead the four-year research project. “This is a project that I’ve been wanting to work on for a long time,” said Parker, the principal investigator. “I have more than 20 years of experience on the Board of Corrections. This research project is the next step in continuing my service to the state of Arkansas.” The study will be conducted from May 1, 2021, to April 30, 2025. The $453,805 award also provides funding for a graduate assistant, Cassidy Mitchell, who is a criminal justice doctoral student at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock. “Our faculty in the School of Criminal Justice and Criminology continues to raise the bar in community-engaged research,” said Dr. Tusty ten Bensel, director of the School of Criminal Justice and Criminology at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock. “This project is a great example of how our faculty and students engage with agency partners to improve our understanding of how the criminal justice system works, specifically in corrections.” Each individual correctional unit in the Arkansas Department of Corrections has a unique history, mission, and staffing as well as varied inmate, resident, and client makeup. Each unit in the state’s system will be studied individually before larger conclusions and recommendations are made for the Arkansas Department of Corrections as a whole.

Solomon Graves serves as cabinet secretary of Arkansas Department of Corrections.

The first phase will include studies on Cummins, Varner, East Arkansas, Tucker, and Tucker Max. Phase two will include Ouachita River, Wrightsville Complex, and Delta. Next, the third phase will include North Central, Grimes, McPherson, Pine Bluff units, and independent work release centers. The final phase of study will include Community Correction Centers and Probation and Parole Offices. “This has the potential to be a game-changer for the Department of Corrections. For the past decade, we have worked toward increasing our utilization of data-informed decision making,” Graves said. “Along with our newly created Quality Improvement and Program Evaluation unit, this ��Vlog��ý Little Rock partnership will give our Board and Leadership Team the type of actionable data we have only dreamed about.” The research project seeks to understand all aspects of prison life in Arkansas. To accomplish this, the research team will survey offenders, prison staff, family members of offenders, and volunteers. “We are one of the few large-scale projects that includes visitors and volunteers,” Parker said. “Families are a critical dynamic to incarceration and adding their perspective to the study gives us invaluable information on the impact of incarceration on friends and families of those incarcerated. Most people do not realize it but hundreds of volunteers work in prison providing religious programming, therapy groups, dog training, meditation, etc. for the inmate population. We will be surveying a sample of this population to gain their perspectives on what we can do better in our individual prison to improve multiple dynamics of the culture in prison.” The research team will also conduct focus groups with medical, educational programming, unit support, management, and training staff as well as probation and parole officers and staff members.

Dr. Bob Lytle

Dr. Molly Smith

“I am very excited about this project for several reasons,” Lytle said. “For example, I’m excited about the opportunity to learn more about and help inform practices related to correctional staffing. Corrections can be a challenging field to work in, but I believe it can be equally satisfying. Corrections staff have the ability to help people in need, protect the community, and provide a public service. My hope for this project is that, over the next several years, we will be able to support efforts to improve correctional work environments and inmate management.” At the end of the study, ��Vlog��ý Little Rock will provide a final report with conclusions and recommendations about each unit in the prison system, a review of the educational programming throughout the system, recommendations with corresponding best practices for DOC administration, and recommendations to improve the culture and climate throughout the system. “As far back as early 2019, the now Division of Correction began discussing the need for an external review of various elements of our prison operations,” Graves said. “With the passage of Act 910 of 2019, the benefits of this project to the entire adult corrections system began being discussed. ��Vlog��ý Little Rock immediately came to the forefront as a natural partner for this project. The Department of Corrections has utilized doctoral interns from the ��Vlog��ý Little Rock Department of Criminal Justice for several years. Additionally, multiple faculty members have conducted research projects involving our populations over the years and Dr. Mary Parker-Reed, a former Criminal Justice Department chairwoman, was a longtime member of the Board of Corrections who regularly advocated for a project of this scope during her tenure.” In the upper right photo, Dr. Mary Parker will lead the four-year research project along with fellow criminal justice professors Robert Lytle and Molly Smith.

Four ��Vlog��ý Little Rock students receive SURF research fellowships

Janea Snyder — Thu, 07 Feb 2019 17:05:26 +0000

Four ��Vlog��ý Little Rock students have received the prestigious Student Undergraduate Research Fellowships from the Arkansas Department of Higher Education to conduct research this spring with help from faculty mentors. The (SURF) program provides up to $2,750 to undergraduate students to conduct in-depth research projects in their specific fields of study with the assistance of faculty mentors. To be eligible, all fellowship recipients must have a minimum grade-point average of 3.25, at least 30 hours of credit toward a degree, and support of a faculty mentor. Funds also are provided for students to travel to conferences to present their accomplishments. The students will complete their research this spring semester and will exhibit their work at the Student Research and Creative Works Showcase on April 18 in the Jack Stephens Center. In addition to the SURF grants, the students receive some matching funds through ��Vlog��ý Little Rock’s Office of the Vice Provost for Research. The ��Vlog��ý Little Rock fellows include the following: Bonn Belingon – “Enzymatic Studies of BbI06 from Borrelia burgdorferi,” ($2,750 from SURF, $1,250 match to equal $4,000) Belingon, of Marion, Arkansas, is researching how to isolate and target specific enzymes that are found in B. burgdorferi, the bacterium that causes Lyme disease. Currently, drug resistance to B. burgdorferi has surged and new strategies are needed to combat the disease. Belington and his mentor, Dr. Shanzhi Wang, will purify and characterize the BbI06 enzyme and determine 10 inhibitors against the bacterium. Madeline Burke – “Duck and Cover: How the Outdated Maritime 1851 Limitation of Liability Act Shields Shipowners From Liability,” ($2,750 from SURF, $1,250 match to equal $4,000) Burke, of Little Rock, is investigating the legal and ethical considerations of the 1851 Limitation of Liability Act that protects shipowners from liability. This act was cited by Ride the Ducks, the company that owned the duck boat that sank and killed 17 people on Table Rock Lake in Missouri on July 19, 2018. Burke will use library and government databases to create a research presentation for a national conference and submit an article for publication in a peer-reviewed journal. Dr. Casey Rockwell from the Department of Marketing and Advertising is Burke’s mentor. Caroline Kornelsen – “Understanding of ��ö��ٱ�� Resonance Energy Transfer in Ionic Materials,” ($2,750 from SURF, $1,250 match to equal $4,000) Kornelsen, of Fallbrook, California, and her faculty mentor, Dr. Noureen Siraj, are researching novel and inexpensive approaches to developing new materials that possess ��ö��ٱ�� Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET) characteristics. FRET is a non-radiation energy transfer process between donor and acceptor moieties. Ionic material with FRET characteristics will be developed using a fluorescent organic ion as donor and counterion as acceptor. FRET characteristic in an ionic material will be understood by developing several derivatives of ionic materials using same cation but variable anion or vice versa. These materials are important in the arena of energy, healthcare, and the environment. This project will allow Kornelsen and Siraj to learn more about the parameters that depend on FRET efficiency in ionic material. Michael Meziere – “Examining the Relationships between Religiosity, Rape Myth Acceptance, and Sexual Misconduct,” ($2,125 from SURF, $625 match to equal $2,750) Meziere, of Little Rock, is examining if religiosity plays a factor in the misconceptions and myths surrounding sexual assaults on college campuses. To carry out this study, Meziere will conduct surveys to gather information on religious beliefs and sexual attitudes. The data gathered will be presented in a poster presentation at the Academy of Criminal Justice Studies annual meeting in Baltimore, Maryland, in March 2019 and the ��Vlog��ý Little Rock Student Undergraduate Research Expo in April 2019. Dr. Molly Smith from the Department of Criminal Justice is Meziere’s mentor. Madeline Burke is one of four ��Vlog��ý Little Rock students to receive a Student Undergraduate Research Fellowship. She is researching an old maritime law which says the owner of a sunken vessel is not legally responsible for its cargo. Photo by Benjamin Krain

- University News Archive - ����Vlog��ý Little Rock

Women to Watch at ����Vlog��ý Little Rock 2022: Molly Smith

����Vlog��ý Little Rock awarded $453,000 contract from Arkansas Department of Corrections to study state’s prison culture and climate

Four ����Vlog��ý Little Rock students receive SURF research fellowships

- University News Archive - ��Vlog��ý Little Rock

Women to Watch at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock 2022: Molly Smith

��Vlog��ý Little Rock awarded $453,000 contract from Arkansas Department of Corrections to study state’s prison culture and climate

Four ��Vlog��ý Little Rock students receive SURF research fellowships