CURRENT GRADUATE STUDENTS
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Jordan Parker is a doctoral candidate in the School of Criminal Justice. He received his B.S and M.S. in Criminal Justice from Bowling Green State University. His research interests include community-based violence interventions (CVI), program evaluation, firearm violence, juvenile justice & delinquency, and police misconduct. However, Jordan strives to be a community-engaged researcher working with practitioners and systems-impacted individuals to improve individual and community outcomes. His work has appeared in Policing: A Journal of Policy and Practice, the Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice, and the Journal of Applied Youth Studies. Email: parke600@msu.edu
Kismet (Annord) Okyere, M.S., is a first-year doctoral student at Michigan State University.
Natasha Chlebuch (Tash) is a third-year doctoral student in the School of Criminal Justice. She earned her B.A. in psychology from the University of Pennsylvania before serving as a Youth and Family Advocate at the Montgomery County Youth Center. Tash served as the lab manager of the Scientific Thinking and Representation (STAR) Lab at Villanova University prior to being hired as the department administrator for the philosophy department at Penn. Her research focuses on juvenile justice, courts and risk assessments, and the unique risks for justice-involved girls. Email: chlebuch@msu.edu
Mary "Maggie" McConnaha is a doctoral student in the Department of Teacher Education at Michigan State University. She is broadly interested in juvenile justice, teacher education and professional development, and literacy. She has been supporting the teachers at the local youth detention center since January 2023. You can read her most recent work in the Language Arts of Journal of Michigan and on the educational online magazine, EdWeek. Email: mcconnah@msu.edu
Amanda R. Witwer is a fourth-year doctoral student in the School of Criminal Justice at Michigan State University. Her research interests include judicial decision making, court policy and practice, sentencing guideline systems, and program evaluation. Email: witweram@msu.edu
Mackenzi Moran is a first-year doctoral student in the School of Criminal Justice. She received her B.A. in Criminology and Criminal Justice from the University of Maryland, with a minor in Professional Writing. She then obtained her M.A. in Criminology, Law, and Society from George Mason University in the Summer of 2025. Prior to her arrival at MSU, Mackenzi volunteered as a tutor with the Goucher Prison Education Partnership (GPEP), serving as a substitute lecturer for one of those years, and also briefly participated in the Petey Greene Program (PGP), both in-person and virtually. Her research interests include, corrections, juvenile delinquency, and how families interact and perceive the criminal justice system. Email: moranm13@msu.edu
PROSPECTIVE GRADUATE STUDENTS
Dr. Cavanagh plans to accept incoming graduate student advisees for 2026-2027. Students interested in graduate mentorship under Dr. Cavanagh at the masters or doctoral level are encouraged to apply to the MSU School of Criminal Justice, a top-ranked program offering Masters degrees and Doctorates in criminal justice.
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Students in many other disciplines (e.g., psychology, human development and family studies, sociology, social work, public policy, political science, education) are also welcome to join the lab.
For information about grad student life at MSU or in the lab, please contact any one of Dr. Cavanagh's current graduate students.
GRADUATE STUDENT ALUMNI
Dr. Roberta (Birdy) Liggett O'Malley was a doctoral student in the ADJust Lab from 2019-2021. She earned her PhD in Criminal Justice from Michigan State University in 2021. She is currently an Assistant Professor a the University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee Department of Criminology.
Dr. Erinn Acland was a visiting doctoral scholar in the ADJust lab during 2020 as part of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Graduate Scholarship-Michael Smith Foreign Study Supplements Program (NSERC CGS-MSFSS). She earned her PhD from the University of Toronto in December 2020. She is currently a Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) postdoctoral fellow.
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Dr. MK Kitzmiller was a doctoral student in the ADJust Lab from 2017-2022. She earned her PhD in Community Psychology from Michigan State University in 2022. She is currently a Research Fellow with the New York City Criminal Justice Agency (CJA). She provides analytic support for the Atlas Initiative, a voluntary therapeutic service under the umbrella of bail reform that serves as an alternative to pretrial detention.
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Mina Lee was a doctoral student in the ADJust Lab from 2022-2023. She currently lives and works as a data analyst in South Korea.
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Dr. Jen Paruk was a doctoral student in the ADJust Lab from 2018-2023. She earned her PhD in Criminal Justice from Michigan State University in 2023. She is currently a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the New Jersey Gun Violence Research Center at Rutgers University.
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Ashtaan Rapanos, MPP, was a master's student in the ADJust Lab from 2022-2024. She earned her M.S. in Public Policy from Michigan State University in 2024. She is currently pursuing a Juris Doctorate.
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Erica Dalzell, M.S. was a master's student in ADJust Lab from 2016-2018. ​She earned her M.S. in Criminal Justice from Michigan State University in 2018.
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Dr. Morgan Titus, LMSW was a doctoral student in the ADJust Lab from 2021-2024. She earned her PhD in Human Development and Family Studies from Michigan State University in 2024. She is currently a family therapist.
Dr. Alyssa LaBerge was a doctoral student in the ADJust Lab from 2017-2025. She earned her PhD in Criminal Justice from Michigan State University in 2025. She is currently an Assistant Professor at the University of Wisconsin- La Crosse