FSC Professor New Head of “Protect New York” Think Tank

August 29, 2016

Dr. LaNina Cooke

Dr. LaNina Cooke, new assistant professor in the criminal justice department, has been named Interim President of Protect New York, a think tank housed at FSC that focuses on safeguarding people from terrorism and disaster through research, data, and best practices, with the goal of informing policy.

Dr. Cooke has worked in both law enforcement and academia, as an adjunct professor at John Jay College, and former deputy executive director at the Kings County District Attorney’s Office’s ComALERT program, where she worked to decrease recidivism among formerly incarcerated men and women by using statistics to inform program policy. She is the author of Structure Matters: Predicting Juvenile Justice System Behavior.

In the classroom, says Dr. Cooke, her goal “is to help students to develop a greater appreciation of research and policy and the relationship between the two.”