New Faculty - College of Human Services
Suzanne Bushfield
Clinical Associate Professor and Coordinator, Department of Social Work
Dr. Bushfield has 25 years of social work practice experience in health care, hospice, mental health, and with children and families across the public and private sectors. Her scholarship has focused on the construction of meaning by those facing difficult life events across the life span, with an emphasis on end of life, the role of spirituality and hope, and the impact of social work interventions on fostering resiliency. Her teaching areas are human behavior, advanced practice, and research. Dr. Bushfield is actively involved in the Social Work Section of the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization, serving on the Steering Committee, Cultural and Linguistic Competence Committee, Social Work Standards Committee, and as a regular contributor to their publication, Insights. She has presented at numerous national conferences of NHPCO and CSWE on a variety of aspects of social work practice, teaching, and research. She serves on the editorial review boards of the Journal of Social Work in End of Life and Palliative Care, and Families in Society . Dr. Bushfield is coordinator of the Bachelor of Social Work program.
Scott H. Decker
Professor and Director, School of Criminology and Criminal Justice
Dr. Decker received the B.A. in social justice from DePauw University, and the M.A. and Ph.D. in criminology from Florida State University. His main research interests are in the areas of gangs, juvenile justice, criminal justice policy, and the offender's perspective. He is the Research Partner for Project Safe Neighborhoods in the Eastern District of Missouri, and recently was a speaker at Attorney General Gonzalez' Gang Webcast. His most recent books on gangs include Policing Gangs and Youth Violence ( Wadsworth , 2002), European Street Gangs and Troublesome Youth Groups (Alta Mira Press, 2005), and The International Handbook of Juvenile Justice (Springer-Verlag, 2006).
Robert J. Fornango
Instructor, ABD, School of Criminology and Criminal Justice
Robert Fornango is completing his Ph.D. in criminology and criminal justice at the University of Missouri – St. Louis. His research explores the dynamic processes shaping crime trends in the U.S. at the national, regional, city, and neighborhood level. Specifically, Mr. Fornango's interests include the influences of social structural change, criminal justice policies, and spatial dynamics in explaining social organization and violent crime. Additionally, his work examines the correlates of recidivism among released prisoners. His recent co-authored work appeared in the journal Criminology & Public Policy, and in Prisoner Reentry and Crime in America ( Cambridge ).
Ching-hua Ho
Assistant Professor, Department of Recreation and Tourism Management
Ching-hua Ho received her Ph.D. in leisure studies from Pennsylvania State University . Her dissertation was titled, “Factors affecting older adults' use of local parks and the mediating/moderating role of social support in this relationship.” She received her M.S. in parks, recreation and tourism from the University of Missouri - Columbia . Prior to joining Arizona State University, Dr. Ho was a postdoctoral fellow in the College of Health, Education and Human Development at Clemson University for two years where she worked with various data sets to investigate health-related behaviors among adolescents, including weight control behaviors, substance use and risky sexual behaviors, and suicidal behaviors. Her research interests lie in the arena of leisure and health across the lifespan, with emphasis on youth and older adults. Her research has been presented at national and international conferences related to leisure, health, and gerontology. Dr. Ho has published in refereed journals such as the Journal of Leisure Research, the Journal of Adolescent Health, International Journal of Eating Disorders , the American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse, and Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior .
Cynthia A. Lietz
Assistant Professor, Department of Social Work
Dr. Lietz received her Ph.D. in social work from Arizona State University in 2004, her M.S.W. from the Jane Addams School of Social Work at the University of Illinois at Chicago with a concentration in child and family studies in 1993, and her B.A. from Valparaiso University in 1991. She worked for two years in a child welfare agency providing outpatient counseling for teens and their families. After that, she worked at a residential treatment facility for children for eight years providing a variety of services including inpatient individual counseling, family therapy, group therapy, and providing clinical supervision to the staff of counselors. She also had a private counseling practice for two years in the clinical supervision process in social work practice. Dr. Lietz co-chairs the Professional Development Committee for AZ NASW. This year this committee has implemented a new quarterly training series that brings social work leaders in Arizona together to dialogue about the issue of leadership in social work.
Michael S. Shafer
Professor and Associate Dean
Dr. Shafer serves as the executive director of Applied Behavioral Health Policy, a position he has held since its founding in 1990. He received his Ph.D. in education from Virginia Commonwealth University and has extensive experience in a variety of long-term care systems, including services to persons with developmental disabilities, serious mental illness, substance use disorders, homeless individuals, and incarcerated populations. Dr. Shafer has generated in excess of $20 million in federal, state, and local grants and contracts during his tenure with Applied Behavioral Health Policy, and has published extensively in the professional literature. His research interests are wide ranging and have addressed topics as diverse as the effectiveness of telemedicine in training substance abuse counselors to the effectiveness of mental health courts and other diversionary programs for persons with co-occurring disorders. Dr. Shafer previously served as an instructor in the Eller College of Management at the University of Arizona, where he taught a course on program evaluation and advised students enrolled in the School of Public Administration. Dr. Shafer serves on the Board of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill of Southern Arizona (NAMISA) and volunteers with a variety of other community organizations.
Cassia Spohn
Professor, School of Criminology and Criminal Justice
Dr. Spohn received her Ph.D. in political science from the University of Nebraska - Lincoln in 1978. Prior to joining the faculty at Arizona State University, she was the Kayser Professor of Criminal Justice at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, where she served as Director of Graduate Studies for 12 years and as Department Chair for one year. Dr. Spohn is the author of How Do Judges Decide? The Search for Fairness and Justice in Punishment . She also is the co-author of two books: The Color of Justice: Race, Ethnicity, and Crime in America and Rape Law Reform: A Grassroots Movement and Its Impact . She has published more than 75 articles on topics such as the effects of race/ethnicity and gender on sentencing decisions, sentencing of drug offenders, prosecutors' charging decisions in sexual assault cases, and the deterrent effect of imprisonment.
Gary Sweeten
Assistant Professor, School of Criminology and Criminal Justice
Dr. Sweeten received his Ph.D. in criminology and criminal justice from the University of Maryland in May 2006. His research interests include life-course criminological theory; patterns of employment, education, relationships, and crime in adolescence; econometric methods; measurement of crime; juvenile delinquency and prevention; and early intervention. His work has appeared in Advances in Criminological Theory, Justice Quarterly, and the Journal of Experimental Criminology.
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