The College of Criminology and Criminal Justice is home to more McKnight Fellows than any other college at Florida State University, with a total of five McKnight Doctoral Fellows in residence.

This prestigious and highly sought fellowship was established in 1984 to address the under-representation of African American and Hispanic faculty at colleges and universities in the State of Florida by increasing the pool of citizens qualified with Ph.D. degrees to teach at the college and university levels.

The McKnight Doctoral Fellowship is only awarded to 50 students across the state each year. Students who receive the fellowship are awarded tuition for up to five academic years and an annual stipend of $12,000.

The College of Criminology and Criminal Justice is pleased to announce the following McKnight Doctoral Fellows:

Caroline Bailey – Ms. Bailey’s research interests include racial disparities across the criminal justice system, as well as the nexus between victimization and offending across structurally disadvantaged contexts.

 Kaleena J. Burkes – Ms. Burkes’ research interests are recidivism and social stratification, life course criminology, race and crime, and contextual effects. Her dissertation research focuses primarily on the relationship between access to reentry resources and recidivism and how it can decrease the likelihood of recidivism when former offenders reenter society. She provides an empirical assessment of the argument for why access to reentry resources, specifically housing, education, and employment services, will reduce the likelihood of recidivism.

Miltonette Olivia Craig – Ms. Craig’s research interests include race/ethnicity and crime, gender and crime, prisoner reentry, and the victim-offender overlap. Her current research and teaching focuses on imprisonment conditions and drug legislation. She also volunteers as a GED instructor at FCI Tallahassee, a federal women’s prison.

Cresean Hughes – Mr. Hughes’ research interests include racial and ethnic inequality and its implications for punishment decisions, particularly in the school setting.

Tamara J. Stephens – Ms. Stephens’ interests focus on the biosocial assessment of crime. Using behavioral genetic methodology and quantitative analysis, she examines heritable risk factors and environmental influences on the development of delinquent behavior. Ms. Stephens’s additional interests include crime theory, reward dominance theory, twin-based research designs, and interdisciplinary theory integration.

Since the fellowship was created more than 300 McKnight Fellows have graduated with Ph.D.’s, in an average completion time of 5.5 years.

To learn more about the McKnight Doctoral Fellowship visit their website.