SENIOR RESEARCH SCIENTISTS
Amanda Bobnis
Amanda Bobnis has served as an integral member of DSG’s Research and Evaluation Division for more than 12 years. She has worked as a research assistant for the CrimeSolutions.gov project since its inception. For that project, she researches and identifies evidence-based programs for inclusion in the database, conducts literature reviews in selected criminal justice, juvenile justice, and victimization program areas, and assists with database content development. She works as a senior project coordinator for the Model Programs Guide, researching and identifying evidence-based programs for inclusion in the program directory, reviewing literature in selected juvenile justice program areas, and writing program descriptions for the online database.
Ms. Bobnis served as a senior project coordinator and research assistant on the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention’s (OJJDP’s) Evaluation of Safe Harbor Laws—laws that recognize juveniles involved in commercial sexual exploitation as victims and attempt to divert them away from the juvenile justice system. She has also served as a research assistant/project coordinator for multiple OJJDP– and National Institute of Justice–funded evaluations, for which she has been responsible for collecting data, field-testing survey instruments, and managing data. Additionally, her work collecting and maintaining survey databases and drafting quarterly updates has added to her experience with fieldwork. For DSG’s Training and Technical Assistance Division, she has aided in organizing materials for nationwide training sessions, as well as providing evaluation analysis of trainings and trainers, needs assessments, and national conferences.
She worked on a National Institute of Justice–funded study to assess the effect and quality of services provided to victims of serious identify theft. This multiphase project was designed to understand the effect and quality of services provided to victims of serious identity crime in the United States, to improve our understanding about victim experiences, and to identify the best ways of supporting victims who experience the ramifications of identity-based crime. Ms. Bobnis assisted in data collection (online surveys and in-person focus groups), survey database management, qualitative coding, qualitative analysis, and final-report writing.
Favorite quote: “It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what’s essential is invisible to the eye.” — Antoine de Saint–Exupéry
Carol Petrie
Carol Petrie is a private consultant in the criminal justice research and program development field. Throughout her more than 35-year career, she has worked in criminal justice research, statistics, program development, and public policy, including 24 years at the National Institute of Justice and the Bureau of Justice Statistics and 12 years at the National Research Council. Currently, she serves as a senior researcher for NIJ’s CrimeSolutions.gov, an online database of more than 400 evidence-based programs and practices encompassing a broad range of criminal justice, juvenile justice, and victims’ topics.
Brandn Green, Ph.D.
Brandn Green is a senior research scientist with 7 years of experience developing and leading applied research programs using multiple research methods. He is a social epidemiologist, with a concentration on behavioral health in disadvantaged communities. At DSG, Dr. Green has been the lead qualitative researcher on the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention–funded evaluation of safe harbor law effectiveness and the National Institute of Justice–funded study to assess the effect and quality of services to victims of serious identity theft. In each of these projects, he collected, managed, and analyzed data for interviews and focus groups with both victims and victim support professionals. At DSG and in his prior professional positions, Dr. Green’s research has used mixed-methods research approaches to examine victim services, community structures, organizational mechanisms, and health systems. He was awarded a Ph.D. in rural sociology from the Pennsylvania State University and an M.Div. in ethics from Wake Forest University.
Before coming to DSG, Dr. Green was the director of the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Survey for the state of Montana and a senior service fellow at the Center for Behavioral Health Statistics and Quality at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. He has published widely on education, community health, and environmental topics in numerous academic journals.
Suat Cubukcu, Ph.D.
Suat Cubukcu, Ph.D., is a Senior Scientist for DSG and an Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice and Homeland Security at Towson University. He has engaged extensively in the studies of terrorism, extremism, policing, and methodological issues in data collection. Dr. Cubukcu has a wealth of professional field and leadership experience in law enforcement and international organizations, including at the United Nations. He engaged with government leaders and officers from many different countries and gained insight into their challenges that he has since integrated into his research.
Chase Montagnet
Chase Montagnet is a Ph.D. student and graduate assistant at the School of Criminal Justice at Rutgers University – Newark. She graduated summa cum laude from the College of Charleston in 2009 with a Bachelor of Science in Psychology, and received her Master’s Degree (with honors) in Criminal Justice Policy from the London School of Economics and Political Science in 2012. Her research interests include life-course criminology and community reentry, with a specific focus on how social supports and social institutions aid in desistance. She is also interested in the negative role societal stigmas may play in the desistance process. For DSG, Ms. Montagnet works as a Research Analyst for NIJ’s CrimeSolutions.gov and OJJDP’s Model Programs Guide evidence-based repositories. She synthesizes information from evaluations and meta-analyses to produce program profiles for publication, and led interviews and focus groups related to the implementation of juvenile justice interventions.