Each year, the College of Sciences and Humanities has the honor of welcoming new faculty members and we are thrilled to introduce Assistant Professor Brooke Cooley of Criminal Justice and Criminology.

Dr. Cooley received her undergraduate and Master’s degree in criminal justice from the University of Central Missouri and then earned her Ph.D. in criminal justice from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.

She was initially drawn to the field through her father, a police officer in Alton, Illinois. Although she never aspired to be a police officer, she was fascinated by his work and influenced to pursue criminal justice. In college, she started to enjoy the research aspect of criminal justice and realized with a PhD she could research everything and anything that interested her within the field of criminal justice and criminology.  Her current research focus within criminal justice and criminology is corrections, institutional management, special populations within correctional facilities and sex offender research. Of this, Dr. Cooley said, “Personally, I conduct a lot of qualitative research but I also enjoy collaborating with colleagues to perform quantitative studies.” She looks forward to continuing her research and collaborating in within the Ball State community.

Dr. Cooley chose Ball State for a number of reasons. “Ball State University seemed like a great place to work and I really liked how the department was engaging with students and prioritized research. Further, the faculty within the department seemed fantastic!” She also noted that Dr. Gibbs was an influential professor of hers when she attended Central Missouri, so she is delighted to work alongside him now and his presence at Ball State confirmed that this department is a good fit.

As to this first year at Ball State, Dr. Cooley looks forward to acclimating to the university and to the community of Muncie. She is excited to get to know the students and the culture and climate of the department.

During her spare time, Dr. Cooley enjoys sports, particularly soccer and basketball. She played soccer for her university during her undergraduate career. One of her favorite things to do is watch the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team.   

Welcome to Ball State, Dr. Brooke Cooley!

 

Interested in learning more about Criminal Justice and Criminology at Ball State? Click here to read our departmental blog. To meet all the new faculty members in the College of Sciences and Humanities, click here.