Wall of Fame

Dr. Kathryn Branch is a Professor and the Chair of the Criminology and Criminal Justice Department of the University of Tampa. She received her Ph.D. in Criminology from the University of South Florida in 2005.

Dr. Branch's current research examines ways in which sexual violence affects college populations and campus communities. She is currently the co-investigator on a project using "big data" to understand the backlash against campus gender-based violence policies. The study examines the longitudinal trajectory of CGBV advancements as well as backlash events. Her research is featured in Feminist Criminology, The Journal of Interpersonal Violence, Violence & Victims, and Violence Against Women. She is especially interested in alternative methods for coping with trauma and is currently undergoing a 200 hour yoga teacher training with the intent to become certified in trauma-sensitive yoga.

Dr. Branch is dedicated to serving her community. She is actively engaged with Girls on the Run (GOTR), a 10 week afterschool care program for girls in 3rd-5th grade that teaches life skills through running. In 2016, she was selected by Bay News 9 as an Everyday Hero for her work with the Girls on the Run of Greater Tampa Bay. She is a race committee member for Girls on the Run Greater Tampa Bay 5k and has been a "solemate" and running buddy for the program. In 2019, she became a certified GOTR coach and coached her first team of 18 girls.

Clyde Eisenberg began his law enforcement career with the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office in 1980 working as a Detention Deputy in the county jail system. In 1982, he was transferred to the patrol division. Over the next three decades he served as a Detective, Patrol Corporal, Detective Sergeant, Patrol Lieutenant, Captain of the Child Protective Investigations Division. He was a Patrol Major for six years prior to retiring in 2015 after 35 years of service. After retiring, he served as the Security and Emergency Management Director for Brandon Regional Hospital. From 2000 to 2015, Clyde was an adjunct professor at Saint Leo University.

Major Eisenberg graduated from the University of Tampa in 1980 and received his Masters Degree from USF in 1990 after completing his thesis on law enforcement officer performance evaluation. He is a graduate of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement's Senior Leadership Program and the Police Executive Research Forum's Senior Management Institute for Police.

Major Eisenberg has authored or co-authored six articles in law enforcement professional journals relating to 12 hour work shifts, police pursuits and technology.

Robin Fuson graduated from the University of South Florida in 1990 with a B.S. in Criminology and the Stetson University College of Law in 1993. Mr. Fuson began his 26 year legal career with the State Attorney's Office in Hillsborough County in 1993. He was Chief of the State's DUI Prosecution and Narcotics Units. He prosecuted first degree murder, RICO, trafficking, kidnapping, organized crime, as well as a host of other offenses, compiling over 200 jury trials. In 2001, Mr. Fuson took his legal experience to the private sector for 18 years before deciding to run for Circuit Court Judge. He was elected in November of 2018.

Mr. Fuson is a Florida native and a lifelong resident of Hillsborough County. He played for 13 years in professional baseball, with Oakland, Cleveland, Boston and Seattle. He received two ALCS championship rings and one World Series Championship ring. Mr. Fuson was an Adjunct Professor at USF and his father was a Professor at USF for 30 years, starting as a charter faculty member with USF's first classes in 1960.

Katherine C. Gomez currently serves as the Director of Human Trafficking Intervention for the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice (FDJJ). She holds a B.A. in Sociology from the University of Florida (2005), Graduate Certificate in Criminal Justice Administration from the University of South Florida (2011), M.A. in Criminal Justice Administration from the University of South Florida (2012), Executive Certificate in Supporting LGBTQ Youth from Georgetown University's McCourt School of Public Policy (2018) and is currently a Ph.D. candidate in Public Affairs at the University of Central Florida (exp. 2021).

Ms. Gomez has served Florida since 2006 as a juvenile probation officer, trainer, researcher, and administrator. She served as FDJJ's Standardized Program Evaluation Protocol™ study statewide coordinator and as Institutional Review Board Director. She specializes in youth who have experienced human trafficking, youth who have committed sex offenses, sexually marginalized youth, and high-profile multijurisdictional cases.

Her dissertation research examines sentencing differences for juveniles who have committed sex offenses; other studies in progress include evaluating various intersections of human trafficking and dependency/delinquency system involvement. Her work has been published in the journals Criminology and Public Policy and Advances in Social Work, as well as numerous industry and agency publications.

Nicole Alvarado graduated Summa Cum Laude from the University of South Florida in 2019 with a B.A. in Criminology and a minor in the Science of Physical Activity. During her college career, Ms. Alvarado was featured in the Student Spotlight section of the Criminology Newsletter. The article highlighted her time spent interning with the Federal Bureau of Investigation as a part of the FBI Honors Internship Program. For the duration of her internship, she was assigned to the Violent Crimes Unit in FBI Tampa Headquarters and maintained a Top Secret Security clearance.

Ms. Alvarado recently graduated from the Hillsborough Community College Police Academy and was sworn in to the Tampa Police Department in January 2020. She was selected as a part of the Tampa Police Department scholarship program and was enrolled in a full-time police academy from July 2019 to January of 2020.

In the future, Ms. Alvarado looks forward to utilizing the academic opportunities offered by the Tampa Police Department to pursue a graduate degree.

Vanessa Centelles is a first-year doctoral student in the Criminology Department. She received her B.A. (2017) and M.A (2019) in Criminology from USF as a Graduate Student Success Fellow. Currently, she works as a graduate assistant for the MACJA program under the direction of Dr. Max Bromley, providing mentorship and assistance to the students as the program's writing coach.

Ms. Centelles' research interests include violent victimization, gender-based crime, and the influence of social media on crime. Specifically, she is interested in how forms of in-person victimization may be facilitated by online abuse. As such, Ms. Centelles is currently expanding on her Master's thesis (Dating Application Facilitated Victimization: An Examination of Lifestyle-Routine Activities, Self-Control, and Self Efficacy) under the guidance of Dr. Ráchael Powers and Dr. Richard Moule.

Ms. Centelles plans on completing her Ph.D. in 2023. She looks forward to a career in academia, with a long-term goal of becoming a professor at a research-focused university.

Hyojong Song is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at Korea University in South Korea. He received his B.A. in Sociology and M.A. in Public Administration at Korea University. He joined the USF Criminology doctoral program in 2012 and earned his Ph.D. in 2017. After graduation, he served at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley as an Assistant Professor of the Department of Criminal Justice for two years.

Dr. Song's teaching/research interests include: deviance in cyberspace, green criminology, and theories of crime and delinquency. He is currently working on several research projects on cyberbullying and environmental victimization. His recent publications have appeared in Crime & Delinquency, Critical Criminology, International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, and Sociological Spectrum.

The Clearwater Police Department is an outstanding and valuable community partner. Under the leadership of Chief Daniel Slaughter, USF and Clearwater Police Department signed an MOU with the intention of forming a long-term collaboration that is beneficial to CPD, and USF's faculty and students. Major David Dalton, a graduate of the Department of Criminology's MACJA program, has been the primary point of contact throughout these efforts. A number of initiatives and studies have occurred as a result of this relationship including the use of service dogs in investigations, efforts to reduce car burglary, and the implementation of a sexual assault prevention program for bar staff in tourist areas.

Most recently, the Clearwater Police Department has asked faculty to assist in researching and developing an officer mental health program. The need for such a program is underscored by the number of police suicides in the Tampa Bay area within the last year. A number of faculty are already involved in the project including: Dr. George Burruss, Dr. Kathleen Heide, Dr. Rick Moule, Dr. Ráchael Powers, Dr. Bryanna Fox, Dr. Max Bromley, and Dr. Kathy Moore from our college's Mental Health Law and Policy Department. It is the team's intention to seek grant funding from the Bureau of Justice Assistance, National Institute of Justice, National Science Foundation, and potential private sources such as the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. This grant would be used to fund Criminology graduate students' involvement in this project.

Dr. Michael J. Leiber believed in advancing knowledge to correct the many challenging social ills in society, and this concern for social justice guided his career. Dr. Leiber grew up in and cherished his hometown, Milwaukee. He earned his B.A. from Marquette University, and then entered the M.A. program at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He transferred to the University at Albany, where he earned his M.A. and Ph.D. Dr. Leiber held academic positions at the University of Northern Iowa (1989-2005), Virginia Commonwealth (2005-2010), and the University of South Florida (2010-2020), where he also served as Chair of the Department of Criminology (2011-2019).

His research focused primarily on juvenile justice and disproportionate minority contact with the criminal justice system. He authored over 100 publications, including 76 articles and book chapters, and more than two-dozen government reports, and received more than $700k in grants and contracts. Dr. Leiber was the recipient of several scholarly awards of which he was proud, including those from the Division of Minorities and Women (Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences), a lifetime achievement award from the Division on People of Color and Crime (American Society of Criminology), the W.E.B. Du Bois Award from the Western Society of Criminology, and a Distinguished Alumni Award from the University at Albany, among others. He served as editor of the Journal of Crime and Justice, and more recently, Justice Quarterly. He was often an invited speaker at programs and sessions sponsored by the Office of Juvenile Justice & Delinquency Prevention, Washington, DC.

Many knew Dr. Leiber in a variety of capacities: distinguished scholar, colleague, mentor, and friend. In his personal life, he was a devoted animal lover to his multiple cats and "fidos." An avid sports fan, he loved his Green Bay Packers, along with the Milwaukee Brewers and Bucks, and the Wisconsin Badgers.