Faculty Profiles

Dr. Patricia Zajac
Professor and Chair

Dr. Patricia Zajac is a productive faculty member of the Department in teaching, advising and professional achievements. Dr. Zajac was promoted to Associate Professor in fall 1997, and promoted to Full Professor in fall 2002. After serving as CLASS Director of the Liberal Studies Program from 2000-2004, Dr. Zajac returned to the Criminal Justice Administration Department in fall, 2004. She is currently the Chair of the Department. She was the faculty advisor for the Criminal Justice Student Club until 2000, and continues to serve as major advisor for students.

Dr. Zajac has chaired Special Major Forensic Science students, including Master's Degree Forensic Science Special Majors. She worked with the Biology and Chemistry Departments to develop forensic science options under those majors. Dr. Zajac has created new courses and seminars. Her courses have high standards and include special and innovative assignments.

Dr. Zajac is professionally active, preparing papers and giving presentations at professional organizations. She has served as manuscript reviewer for publishers. She holds memberships on the criminal justice advisory councils of local community colleges and is an adjunct faculty member at Ohlone Community College. Dr. Zajac remains active as a consultant in criminal cases, trials, post-conviction appeals, civil legal proceedings and internal investigations as an expert in aspects of forensic science and physical evidence.

Dr. Zajac has served on several Departmental, College, and University committees. They include: College Curriculum Committee, Promotion, Tenure and Retention Committee, Post- Tenure Review Committee, Department Chair Review Committee, Tenure Track Faculty Search Committee, Assessment Committee, University Sexual Harassment Committee, Review of Dean and Associate Dean for the College of Education and Allied Studies, Council on Teacher Education, and the CLASS Council of Chairs. She regularly participates in New Freshmen/Transfer orientation, campus and community college Majors/Minors Fairs and Rotary Clubs. Dr. Zajac has organized presentations at events and classes at community colleges and high schools.

Email: lee.zajac@csueastbay.edu

Dr. Dawna Komorosky
Assistant Professor

Dr. Komorosky came to CSUEB in 2004 after teaching at Western New England College in Springfield, Massachusetts. She received her Ph.D. in criminology in 2003 from Indiana University of Pennsylvania where she earned the Graduate Deans Award for Sponsored Programs.

Dr. Komorosky's main teaching and research interests focus on women in the criminal justice system, corrections, and juvenile justice. She is committed to educating the community about the impact of violence against women both in the home and workplace. Her commitment to these issues has lead to publications, presentations, and service learning in these areas.

Her background includes a masters in psychology from Chapman University with an emphasis in marriage and family therapy. She has counseled and advocated for rape survivors and victims of domestic violence, including play therapy with children in domestic violence shelters. Furthermore, she has counseled clients in a dual diagnosis psychiatric hospital. Before moving on to earn her Ph.D. in criminology, Dr. Komorosky worked in the foster care system as a treatment manager for families and foster children.

Dr. Komorosky is a member of several criminal justice organizations, including Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences, Western Society of Criminology, and Association of Criminal Justice Research (CA). When she is not teaching and doing research she enjoys hiking with her dog, Denali, rock climbing, and anything else that qualifies as an outdoor adventure.

Email: dawna.komorosky@csueastbay.edu

Dr. Silvina Ituarte
Associate Professor

Dr. Silvina Ituarte came to CSUEB in 2003 after teaching at Kean University in New Jersey for eight years. While at Kean, Dr. Ituarte earned the honor of Professor of the Year in 2001 and served as Director of the Criminal Justice major, Director of Service Learning, and Assistant Chair of the Public Administration Department.

Dr. Ituarte's teaching and research interests mainly focus on issues related to bias crimes (hate crime), juvenile delinquency; correctional system; social justice; and research methodology. Her strongest qualities are her interest and passion in the subject matter; a true commitment to bringing out the best in students; a commitment to excellence in teaching and scholarship; as well as enthusiasm and a teamwork attitude. In the upcoming years, she hopes to continue her personal growth by pursuing more opportunities such her adventure teaching Scholarship and Research to government officials in China, and making a meaningful contribution to the understanding and reduction of bias-motivated behaviors.

Dr. Ituarte began her interest in criminal justice as an undergraduate enrolled in the Social Ecology and Humanities Programs at University of California at Irvine. She went on to receive her doctorate from Rutgers University in New Jersey where she began her ethnographic study of bias-motivated offenders under the guidance of Dr. Mercer Sullivan. Her research interests focus on gaining a greater understanding of bias motivated behaviors, social problems, juvenile delinquency, and correctional systems. She has presented on these and other topics at both national and international conferences.

Before entering graduate school, Dr. Ituarte was a Victim Specialist for the Victim Witness Program in California in which she helped survivors of domestic violence obtain restraining orders against their offenders and receive assistance from local shelters. While in graduate school, she expanded her work experience by screening domestic violence offenders and placing them in a court ordered program in Manhattan, New York. During this time, she also served as a part-time research assistant for the Anti-Violence Project to assist with the data collection and coordination of the annual Bias Crime Report.

Email: silvina.ituarte@csueastbay.edu

Keith Inman
Assistant Professor

Keith Inman came to CSUEB from Forensic Analytical Sciences and has over 30 years experience as a forensic scientist, including stints in laboratories with the Los Angeles County Sheriff, Los Angeles County Chief Medical-Examiner/Coroner, the California Department of Justice, and Oakland Police Department. His areas of specialty include DNA analysis, crime scene investigation and evidence preservation, and crime scene reconstruction.

Professor Inman received his B.S. in Criminalistics from the University of California at Berkeley in 1974, and his MCrim from the same institution in 1978. In addition to presenting numerous papers at professional conferences throughout the world, he has co-authored several forensic science texts. He taught as a lecturer at Cal State East Bay before his current appointment.

At Cal State East Bay, Professor Inman teaches Basic and Advanced Criminal Investigation, Criminal Identification, Comparative Evidence, and Forensic Seminar. His research interests include finding physical evidence relevant to a criminal event, and the reconstruction of that event from the physical findings.

Email: keith.inman@csueastbay.edu

Dr. Julie Beck
Assistant Professor

Dr. Julie Beck came to CSU East Bay in 2006 after receiving her Ph.D. in sociology (with a Designated Emphasis in women’s studies) that same year from the University of California, Santa Cruz. While there, she was recognized with an Outstanding Teaching Award and a U.C. President’s Dissertation Fellowship for her research on women and drug treatment.

Her research interests include: U.S. drug and mental health policies and their effects on women and communities of color; incarcerated women and mothers; therapeutic jurisprudence and social control; the influence of cultural narratives on crime, drug, and welfare policy; qualitative research methods; and social justice/policy reform. Professor Beck has presented papers and participated in joint research projects that include a California women’s prisons study and a project on international migration. Among her publications are oral history interviews with women in post-socialist Czech society and a study of women in a therapeutic community drug treatment program.

Professor Beck looks forward to continuing to contribute to criminal justice and social policy research and reforms, and is committed to critically exploring social service and other policy alternatives to incarceration. She greatly enjoys engaging students in contemporary social issues and debates and bringing a race, class, and gender analysis to teaching and research.

Prior to her doctoral studies, she received her M.A. from the Central European University in Prague in 1995. There she participated in human rights work and researched women’s organizations and processes of criminalization of Czech gypsies during the transition from socialism to a market economy. She also taught high school for several years in a co-ed residential drug treatment program in San Francisco after receiving her B.A. from U.C. Santa Barbara and her teaching credential, and earlier, counseled youth living in group homes. When she is not teaching, researching, or working for social change, she likes to cycle, take her Labrador mutt swimming in the bay, and explore creative writing.

Email: julie.beck@csueastbay.edu