Ms. Debra Monroe-Lax defended her dissertation (title: 'The Effectiveness of the Disproportionate Minority Contact Initiative: A Case Study of the S.H.A.P.E. Diversion Intervention in Public Schools in Memphis, Tennessee; Dissertation adviser: Dr. Jae-Young Ko) on Oct. 8, 2018. She joined the PPAD doctoral program in the Fall 2014. Her dissertation assessed whether the number of law enforcement referrals/arrests from high-risk public high schools to the Juvenile Court of Memphis and Shelby County's detention center, on minor offences, for African American students changed as a result of implementation of the School House Adjustment Program Enterprise (SHAPE) diversion intervention. It has taken only four years from the beginning to the end of her doctoral work! In addition, she attended multiple regional/national/international conferences to present her research works. She published a peer-reviewed journal article as the leading author, and she received the best graduate student research award from the conference of Mississippi Political Science Association in 2017. Currently she works as policy analyst at the Joint Legislative Committee on Performance Evaluation and Expenditure Review (PEER) at the Mississippi State Legislature, which is equivalent to the Congressional Research Service in the US Congress.
Congratulations, Dr. Monroe-Lax!
(In pic, from left: Dean Charles E. Menifield from School of Public Affairs and Administration, Rutgers University, Newark, NJ; Dr. Jae-Young Ko; Ms. Debra Monroe-Lax; Professor Ester W. Stokes, and Professor Johnny Gilleylen)
