Dr. Williams received his doctoral degree from the University of Arizona and was a post-doctoral Fellow at Yale University. Before coming to UCR in 1998, he served as the founding Associate Director of the Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence at the University of Colorado, Boulder. There, he directed research and technical assistance efforts on human development and violence prevention, particularly violence involving youth and intimate partners. Dr. Williams has published widely on the causes and prevention of violence, particularly involving youth or adult intimate partners, with the most recent publications addressing the implementation of wellness centers to prevent youth violence, the ecological context of youth development, and domestic violence risk assessment. He has received numerous grants from federal and state funding sources, in addition to private foundations to support his research. He also has worked extensively with community-based groups, schools, and agencies in violence prevention planning, implementation, and evaluation.

Prior to Dr. Parker's arrival at UC Riverside, Dr. Parker taught in sociology departments at the University of Akron, Rutgers University, and the University of Iowa; held an appointment as an NIAAA Post Doctoral Fellow at the University of California, Berkeley; and was a Senior Research Scientist and Study Director at the Prevention Research Center, Berkeley, CA, a non profit National Center funded by NIAAA and devoted to the study and prevention of alcohol related social problems. In addition, he has published widely in sociology and criminology on the causes of violence in general and homicide in particular, including a 1995 book published by State University of New York Press, Alcohol and Homicide: A Deadly Combination of Two American Traditions. Overall, Dr. Parker’s research interests include criminal justice policy analysis and evaluation; the relationship between alcohol and violence, both offending and victimization, the relationship between alcohol policy and crime prevention; and the development and application of geospatial statistical models to the study of violence, alcohol, and other social problems.

Nancy Guerra EdD, Faculty Associate and Director Southern California Academic Center of Excellence on Youth Violence Prevention

Nancy Guerra is a professor of psychology at University of California Riverside. She received her doctorate from Harvard University. Dr. Guerra’s professional research interests and practice experience have focused on youth development and violence prevention. She is widely published and is well known nationally and internationally for her violence prevention and intervention research. She has served on a number of national expert panels and study groups, such as the President's Coordinating Council on Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, the Office of Education's National Standards Project, and the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention's study group on serious and violent juvenile offenders. Recently, she was the principal investigator on an 8-year large-scale preventive intervention study funded by the National Institute of Mental Health. This study evaluated the impact of a comprehensive and long-term intervention involving children, teachers, and families on the prevention of aggression and violence in inner city and urban communities. In addition, Dr. Guerra was the principal investigator on the evaluation of a school-wide wellness promotion and violence prevention project funded by a grant from SAMSHA to the Riverside Unified School District. She is also the principal investigator on the grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which funds the Southern California Academic Center of Excellence on Youth Violence Prevention. The Center’s efforts involve a multi-disciplinary collaboration of faculty from six southern California universities with a focus on bridging the gaps between research and practice.

Louis Tuthill - is a doctoral student in sociology at University of California, Riverside, working toward completion of his dissertation He has worked for both ACE-UCR and the Presley Center since 2001. Louis contribution to the Presley Center include designing the Center’s website; being involved with community partners; and assisting on several of the Center’s research projects. Louis is interested in the sociology of violence both at the global and local level. His research interests include homicide, domestic violence, terrorism, globalization and urban inequality. Louis is co-author with Robert Nash Parker of a chapter in Nancy Guerra 2005 publication, Preventing Youth Violence in a Multicultural Society.

Kate Luther - is a Sociology major working toward a doctoral degree at the University of California, Riverside. Her research areas are criminology and gender with a focus on incarcerated women. Specifically, she is interested in the issue of motherhood in prison. She is also interested in studying battered women who are incarcerated for killing their abusers. Kate is published and has received a Deans Fellowship and Graduate Teaching Award of the year at UCR.

Lisa Murphy - is a doctoral candidate in Sociology at the University of California, Riverside. Her research interests are in the areas of criminology, law and society, and gender. Her current research focuses on understanding the relationship between the forms of abuse many juvenile delinquent girls suffer and the subsequent types of crimes they have committed. In the future, Lisa will look at girl's lives and delinquency compared to juvenile delinquent boys.

Cory LePage - is a doctoral candidate in Sociology at the University of California, Riverside. His recent research interest has focused on the development of the collaborative courts movement, specifically courts for dually diagnosed offenders. He recently completed a process evaluation of the newly formed Orange County Dual Diagnosis Court. His master's thesis compared the design and implementation of the five courts in the State of California currently serving dually diagnosed offenders, which created dimensions of a dual diagnosis court model. His prior research consisted of working with the RAND Corporation in evaluating juvenile delinquency prevention efforts within the Orange County Probation Department.