Director’s Award for Scholarly Achievement

Elizabeth Kiernan, 2025 Recipient

This award is presented to a graduating MA student who has achieved the highest academic standing in the Masters of Arts (Criminal Justice) Program and who has demonstrated an applied understanding of course materials through their written work.  

Elizabeth Kiernan is graduating with her Master of Arts in criminal justice from Rutgers-Newark in May of 2025. She earned her Bachelor of Arts in criminal justice and political science in May of 2023 from Iona University, originally planning to go to law school, but ultimately pivoting to follow her passion for doing research. In her time as an M.A. student, she has consistently academically challenged herself, including taking multiple statistics classes, and enrolling in classes with 1st year PhD students to understand what the foundations of continuing an academic career are. Through her statistics classes, Elizabeth developed a paper about state political parties and murder rates that will eventually be sent out for publication, and has been submitted for presentation at the American Society of Criminology Annual Meeting in November 2025. She also interned for New Jersey Transit Police Department’s Intelligence Unit during the summer of 2024, learning how to translate academic skills to a practical setting. Elizabeth plans to continue using the skills she has learned during her M.A. at Rutgers to pursue a PhD in criminal justice, with research focuses on public safety and politics, and felon disenfranchisement.