William E. Thornton, Ph. D.
Chair, Department of Criminal Justice

Thornton earned his doctorate from the University of Tennessee. His teaching has covered a wide range of undergraduate and graduate courses and topics in the disciplines of sociology, criminal justice, criminology and security. Thornton is a forensic criminologist specializing in crime foreseeability, crime prevention, premises security litigation, and security assessment. He is author and co-author of several books, chapters, articles and other materials in the fields of criminology, juvenile delinquency, security, and social justice. He is a program planning and evaluation specialist and has done extensive evaluations on both private and public programs and organizations.

Thornton has served as a board member, commissioner, consultant or researcher on dozens of task forces, committees or studies in New Orleans, Louisiana and other states dealing with such issues as crime and delinquency, youth problems, jail and prison overcrowding, school crime and security, crime in public housing, drug use, casino gambling and crime, criminal court sentencing disparities, faith based correctional programs, community policing, and other specialized police units. He served as a crime/security consultant for the New Orleans Downtown Development District for several years helping to enhance business and tourism in the city by designing and implementing various crime prevention and public safety programs for businesses in the central business district. Thornton frequently provides expert witness testimony in cases involving corporate risk, premise liability, and security.

Thornton is currently conducting research on the physical and social aspects of disasters in relation to different types of criminal activity including violent, property and white collar crimes. His most recent research involves the analysis of post-Katrina Latino migrant worker victimizations and the impact that these crimes have on day labor populations. Thornton is also writing a book dealing with public and private security and crime prevention, which will be used in college and university courses in the field of criminology and criminal justice.

David N. Khey, Ph. D.
Director, Master of Science in Criminal Justice Administration; Assistant Professor, Department of Criminal Justice

Khey earned his doctorate from the University of Florida. He has focused his research on a few areas in criminology, criminal justice, and forensic science. In particular, he is currently investigating campus crime and deviance; drug policy, control, and toxicology; and the changing evidentiary power of forensic science technologies. Born and raised in South Florida during the Cocaine Cowboy regime, drug policy and enforcement quickly piqued his interest. In this topical area, Khey has presented research on drug and alcohol use/abuse and provided policy analysis to local and state officials in Florida. A highlight of this work includes an invitation to address the Governor's Office Drug Policy Advisory Council in 2007. Khey is an active member of the American Society of Criminology, American Academy of Forensic Sciences, and Southern Criminal Justice Association.

Outside of criminology and forensic science research, Khey has excelled in developing and administrating online learning environments and takes a special interest in Internet media, learning, and digital crime/forensics. He has almost a decade of experience in academic technology and brings this expertise to Loyola University New Orleans.

Colonel Timothy Scanlan
Director, Forensic Science Program, Loyola University New Orleans
Deputy Commander Technical Services Bureau, Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office

Colonel Scanlan has been a professor with the Department of Criminal Justice since 2004 where he lectures in the field of forensic science and forensic administration. Before beginning his education into the realm of natural science, he first obtained a Bachelor of Criminal Justice degree from Loyola University New Orleans. He then obtained a Master of Science in Forensic Science degree from Florida International University. His graduate research focused on the corrosive effect of blood on projectiles. He presented the results of this extensive study at the American Academy of Forensic Sciences' Fifty-seventh meeting and at the International Forensic Science Symposium in Taipei, Taiwan. Professor Scanlan is currently pursuing his doctorate degree (Ph.D.) in Public Administration with a specialization in Homeland Security Police and Coordination. His current research is divided between the role of forensic science in homeland security and factors effecting expert witness testimony.

As a Colonel with the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office, he oversees the Crime Laboratory and Crime Scene Divisions. Professor Scanlan is a court qualified expert in firearms and tool mark examination, bloodstained pattern analysis, crime scene reconstruction, and trace evidence analysis. He has testified in numerous criminal trials and in multiple jurisdictions.

Professor Scanlan has presented his own research nationally and internationally, including for the International Association of Identification, the International Forensic Science Symposium, the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, the Southern Institute of Forensic Science, and the Louisiana Association of Forensic Sciences. He also enjoys guest lecturing for many of the local universities and law enforcement agencies.

Bethany L. Brown, Ph. D.
Assistant Professor, Department of Criminal Justice

Brown earned her doctorate from the University of Delaware in Sociology. At the University of Delaware, she worked as a research assistant at the Disaster Research Center and participated in projects analyzing response to Hurricane Katrina and improvisation after the September 11th World Trade Center terrorist attacks. Her dissertation, "organizational response and recovery of domestic violence shelters in the aftermath of disaster," was selected as one of the Public Entity Risk Institute's (PERI) national fellows and was chosen as a winner of the Samuel H. Prince dissertation Award.

Brown's areas of expertise are community resilience, social vulnerability, law, policy change and crime after disaster. In line with her disaster scholarship, the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START) has awarded Brown a sub-award to assess community resilience through rigorous program evaluation of the Federal Emergency Management Agency's catastrophic preparedness initiatives in communities all over the US. Special consideration will be given to the possibly variable impact of the initiatives on individuals by gender or racial and/or ethnic groups, or in different socioeconomic strata and geographic regions.

Dee Wood Harper, Jr., Ph. D. 
Professor, Department of Criminal Justice

Harper earned his Ph.D. from Louisiana State University. His dissertation research focused on cultural differences in patterns of aging among rural people of Louisiana. He was also awarded a National Institute of Mental Health post-doctoral fellowship (1973-74) in social psychiatry from the Tulane University School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry and Neurology, Social Psychiatry Unit focusing on the administration of drug abuse programs.

Harper's scholarly research, spanning over 40 years, has been wide-ranging, addressing issues in gerontology, sociology of education, epidemiology of addiction, sociology of tourism and crime, and more recently, the death penalty and violent crime and deviance.

Harper's work has been published in such journals as American Journal of Sociology, Sociological Spectrum, Annals of Tourism Research, International Journal of Law and Information Technology, Artificial Intelligence and Applications, Proceeding: Artificial Intelligence Applications Conference, Homicide Studies and Criminal Justice Review as well as chapters in edited volumes and encyclopedia entries including recently published volumes, Tourism, Security and Safety (Butterworth-Heinemann, 2006) in which he examines tourists crime victimization and The Sociology of Katrina: Perspectives on a Modern Catastrophe (Rowman & Littlefield, 2007) in which he examines the impact of hurricane Katrina on property crime. Harper currently has research papers under review with Police Practice and Research: An International Journal, Deviant Behavior, Sociological Spectrum and American Journal of Economics and Sociology.

Harper has been principal investigator or co-principal investigator on 17 federal, state, corporate and private foundation grants beginning in 1965 while still a graduate student.

Vincenzo A. Sainato, Ph. D.
Assistant Professor - Master of Science in Criminal Justice Administration, Department of Criminal Justice

Sainato completed his doctorate in Criminal Justice from John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City. His dissertation comprised a new elaboration on Situational Crime Prevention as a tool for oversight and governance of CJ agencies and their design and use of databases and data systems. Sainato's research crosses a wide spectrum of subject areas, including, economic development and crime, technology and criminal justice, governance and accountability, critical incident analysis, crime prevention, cybercrime, and beyond.

Sainato began his professional career in 1996 working as a designer at Agency.com in New York City. Until 2002 he designed or directed the creation of internet-based complex information systems for firms such as Nike, British Airways, Citibank, Kodak, Budweiser, and many others. In 2001 he was working for a firm headquartered in the World Trade Center and following the events of 9-11 he wanted to bring focus expertise into the realms of police administration and transnational crime.

Sainato earned his undergraduate degree in International Criminal Justice from New York's John Jay College of Criminal Justice. While there he focused his studies on economic development, crime, and corporate risk in East Asia. Sainato was awarded a Presidential Fellowship from Fordham University in New York City where he also earned a dual Masters in International Political Economy and Development and the other in Economics.

Since joining Loyola University in 2009 he has focused on the development of our new online program; however, he has two forthcoming books: one on data systems and criminal justice administration and the other a textbook teaching students how to apply statistics to decision-making in the administration of criminal justice. Sainato likes to apply his scholarly training to the real world and is currently in training to be a Reserve Deputy Sheriff with the Jefferson Parish Sheriffs' Office.

Rae Taylor, Ph. D.
Assistant Professor, Department of Criminal Justice

Taylor joined the Loyola faculty in the fall of 2009 after completing her Ph.D. at the University of Central Florida. Her doctoral dissertation involved examining pregnancy as a risk factor for multiple dimensions of lethal and non-lethal intimate partner violence, including physical and sexual violence, stalking, threats of death, and power and control. During her tenure as a doctoral student, she was the recipient of several teaching and research awards, including the prestigious University Award for Excellence in Graduate Student Teaching in 2008.

Taylor's research and teaching interests include intimate partner violence and other violent crimes, societal and organizational responses to violent crime, social inequalities, research methodology, and criminological and sociological theory. She has published research articles in Violence Against Women and Homicide Studies, and wrote an entry for the Encyclopedia of Victimology and Crime Prevention on court advocacy. She has taught many courses over the past several years, ranging from general criminology and sociology courses to advanced level substantive areas such as murder and domestic violence. In addition, Taylor has worked as a data analyst and policy consultant for CourtWatch Florida, a non-profit court monitoring and advocacy organization, and been involved with several community based research projects pertaining to homelessness and other areas.

Prior to returning to graduate school for her doctoral studies, Taylor worked in the criminal justice system as a victim advocate for the Office of the State Attorney in Orange County, Florida. She worked on hundreds of criminal cases involving domestic violence, stalking, violations of injunction, sexual assault, and other felony crimes, and taught a weekly course on domestic violence awareness and the criminal justice process to victims of domestic violence. In 2003, she attended the Florida Crime Prevention Training Institute through the Office of the Attorney where she became a designated victim services practitioner. It was her work as an advocate and her experience in the criminal justice system that inspired Taylor to pursue her Ph.D and a career in academia. She believes that teaching and research provide her with the greatest opportunity to contribute to understanding and awareness, prevention, and reform.

In addition to her academic degrees, Taylor holds a graduate level certification in domestic violence and has been inducted into the Alpha Kappa Delta National Honor Society and the Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society. She is a member of several professional organizations including the American Society of Criminology, the Homicide Research Working Group, and the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences, where she regularly presents her research.

Brenda K. Vollman, Ph. D.
Assistant Professor, Department of Criminal Justice

Vollman earned her doctorate from John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Vollman's research involves sex offenders and public policy. Vollman has taught computer applications in criminal justice, providing an introduction to the basic principles of computing with respect to police information systems and computer automation as well as use of data from the National Incident Based Reporting System (NIBRS), Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR), National Crime Information Center (NCIC); and other criminal justice databases. She has also taught research design and statistical analyses, focusing on methods best applied to a variety of criminal justice related issues. These range from behavioral assessments to measuring policy trends. Practical expertise is specific to the use of software and online resources particular to information management as well as advancing data analyses.