Molly McDowell is a new face in the criminal justice department at Wayne State College after she started last fall as an assistant professor.  

Her educational journey has taken McDowell all across the country.  

“I did my undergrad at Cornell and got an English degree,” McDowell said. “Then several years later, I decided that I wanted to go into public service so I did my master’s in public administration at Binghamton University, which is also in Upstate New York.”  

While completing this degree, McDowell said she realized a public-facing government job was not for her, so she decided to change directions.  

“I really loved research, and that’s how I ended up in a Ph.D. program,” McDowell said.  

She said she attended Texas State University for her Ph.D. program and finished in 2022. McDowell said she found her job at WSC at the end of her Ph.D. program on an advertisement and decided to apply. This semester she is teaching police and society, corrections and a special topics course in crime and place.  

Jason Karsky, a professor and department chair for the criminal justice department, said he was chair for the search committee for McDowell’s position.  

“She brings a diverse academic background with interests in gender violence, geography and crime, public administration and research methods and statistics,” Karsky said.   

“So much of teaching on the college level is learning on the fly how to teach…” McDowell said.  

She said her favorite part about teaching is being able to see students get enthusiastic about a topic once they understand it and have a good time in class.  

McDowell also spoke about special skills that she can bring to the criminal justice department.  

“I have a strong background in statistics so I know that that’s going to be on me if we bring back a required course in criminal justice,” McDowell said.  “I’m looking forward to the challenge of making that an enticing course.” 

McDowell said she just finished her dissertation and is actively doing research with colleagues from different areas and institutions.  

“Hopefully I’ll be able to bring students into that, particularly those that are interested in grad school because having undergraduate research experience is really helpful,” McDowell said.  

Karsky said that McDowell is already making an impact on the department by teaching a special topics course that hasn’t been taught before developing a graduate level statistics class.  

“Since she filled a brand new position in our department, we didn’t have much of a choice but to throw her right in the mix with a large advising load and a bunch of new class preps,” Karsky said. “She has really assisted in helping our department mediate the increase in student enrollment, in criminal justice, we’ve experienced over the years.” 

In her free time, McDowell likes to take her dog on walks, who is “impossible to tire out,” McDowell said. She also said she loves playing trivia.  

“I’m really good at trivia,” McDowell said. “That was my main stress reliever when I was in grad school.”  

In fact, she said she even got a tattoo that incorporates her trivia team’s name that she played with in San Marcos, Texas.