CU-Lock Haven Criminal Justice Faculty Member Conducts Research with Alumnus

Dr. Katie Ely, criminal justice faculty at CU-Lock Haven, attended the American Society of Criminology (ASC) Annual Conference in Washington, D.C. from Nov. 12-14. While at the conference, she presented a poster on the Impact of Guest Speakers on Student Learning. The IRB approved research is done in conjunction with former Lock Haven criminal justice graduate Troy Teresak '18, who is finishing his dissertation at Florida International University. 

Ely created a survey to measure the impact of guest speakers in her Women and Crime course, which has been a significant part of the course for years. “Anecdotally students have told me how much the speakers impacted them. I realized that there was more specific information I wanted to find out and decided to create a survey,” Ely said.

Ely administered the survey in fall 2024 and spring 2025, which was what was part of the poster presentation. “Many conference participants stopped to speak with us and were very interested in our research. It was exciting to talk about the project with other faculty and graduate students,” Teresak said. 

Research remained ongoing in the fall 2025 semester and will continue through the winter intersession. After that point, the goal is to publish this research and hopefully expand on it to other criminal justice classes in the future. Both Ely and Teresak would like to make the survey broader, rather than focused on one class and topic.