Ph.D. alum Walton speaks at KCP Distinguished Visiting Professors Forum

Dr. Isis N. Walton, who earned her Ph.D. in Sociology at Wayne State in 2001, returned today to speak at the 2014 King-Chavez Parks (KCP) Distinguished Visiting Professors Forum on Career Development where she discussed her experiences at Wayne State and her career path

Dr. Walton is an associate professor of criminal justice in the Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice at Virginia State University. She currently teaches a variety of criminal justice courses both at the undergraduate and graduate levels and her research interests include various aspects of criminal justice such as juvenile justice issues, disproportionate minority incarceration, as well as collegiate drinking and victimization. She has published several book chapters, articles and presented at numerous conferences in these areas. In addition to a career in teaching, Dr. Walton was also an Associate Researcher for the Addiction Research Institute at Wayne State University.

Dr. Walton was the Principal Investigator on a grant-funded mentoring program with the Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS) and the 11th District Juvenile Court Services unit in Petersburg. She served as the Coordinator of the ReGENT Mentoring program which has matched more than 100 truant youth in the Petersburg Public Schools with VSU students serving as mentors. Additionally, she has also served as the co-coordinator of the Disproportionate Minority Contact in the Criminal Justice System Conference, which is the only annual conference on disparity in the justice system in Virginia. Further, she served on the Virginia Commission on Youth Juvenile Offender Re-entry Advisory Group in 2010.

She is the proud mother of three children, Ishari, Ja'zhon, and Willow and a wife of 16 years to William R. Walton, Jr. Of all the roles she occupies, Dr. Walton considers her greatest roles as that of mother, wife and servant to the community.