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Prior to joining academia, Dr. Garcia worked as a researcher in the early part of her career conducting state and federally funded research with the Research Institute on Addictions and the National Center for State Courts (NCSC). While at the NCSC, Dr. Garcia joined the Conference of Chief Justices (CCF) as a research liaison and worked with the U.S. Office of the Attorney General to ensure state court compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. Her research teams at the NCSC created a bench book for family court judges to use when handling intimate partner violence cases and assessed court compliance with the New Jersey Division of Youth and Family Services and the Adoption and Safe Families Act.

Dr. Garcia currently has twenty-nine years of experience teaching and advising undergraduate and graduate students. For her teaching, Dr. Garcia received the 2019 Excellence in Teaching Award from the Ò°»¨ÉçÇø Chapter of the National Society of Leadership and Success. Dr. Garcia has extensive service with the university and currently serves as Vice President of the University Senate. At the state level, Dr. Garcia was awarded the Dr. Robert J. McCormack Leadership Award (2005-2006) after serving as President. She was also awarded the 2022 Sarah Hall Award for Service Contributions from the Division of Feminist Criminology (DFC) of the American Society of Criminology (ASC) and recently served as Executive Counselor of the ASC.

Dr. Garcia’s research includes studies in the areas of women in policing, violence against women, and crime and media. Dr. Garcia regularly presents her research at the annual meeting of the ASC. Her research has been published in such journals as the Journal of Criminal Justice, Police Practice and Research, Deviant Behavior, Journal of Addictions and Offender Counseling, Children and Youth Services Review, and the International Journal of Comparative and Applied Criminal Justice. She has also published several books in her areas of study. For her work, Dr. Garcia received the 2005 New Scholar of the Year from DFC, was inducted into the Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi in 2005 and was invited to present her police research at the 2022 NGO CSW66 Forum, the civil society forum of the UN Commission on the Status of Women.