Bergen Community College

Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology,DePaul University

I did quite poorly in high school; I believe my cumulative GPA was a 1.8! I left home when I was 15 and spent most of the next four years focused on surviving. I wouldn't have been accepted into a college without open admissions and I also needed my tuition to be completely covered by grants. Bergen Community College allowed me to go to college even when that seemed completely incongruous with the rest of my life. I graduated from BCC in 1997, earning an AA in women's studies. From there, I transferred to Fordham University, where I earned a BA in Sociology. I finished my studies at Princeton University, where I received a PhD in Sociology. My dissertation is titled Mass Racialized Incarceration: Criminal Policies, Criminal Practices, and Racial Stratification in the Post-Civil Rights United States. I am now an assistant professor at DePaul University.

I found true mentors among the professors. I can say without hesitation that Dr. Mark Kassop is the reason I am a sociologist. Mark, and most of the other professors I had at BCC, treated me like I was capable of serious scholarly work. In time, I believed them. This allowed me to be passionate about my academic work and it is a pedagogical strategy I try to emulate in my own teaching.

Fordham University, Princeton University

Ph.D.