Department of Sociology and Criminology

Professional Bio

Alexandra received her B.A. in Psychology & Social Behavior and Criminology, Law & Society from the University of California, Irvine. She went on to receive her M.A. in Criminology from Penn State, and expects to receive her Ph.D. in Criminology in the Summer of 2022.

Her research interests are focused in corrections and rehabilitation, with an emphasis on the successes and pitfalls of prison programming and the antecedents of prison program completion. She has also studied the impediments to human capital that justice contact poses, including how incarceration as a juvenile may inhibit graduation within a timely manner and how justice contact reduces the likelihood of quality, stable employment in early adulthood.

She has taught at the middle school, high school, undergraduate, and graduate levels, and had produced accredited curricula in global policy and international relations for high schools in Orange County. She has also led and participated in data collection, notably collecting data for her undergraduate honors thesis on physical and sexual abuse victims, and conducting one-on-one interviews with incarcerated men and women in both urban and rural settings.