The ASC Division on Corrections and Sentencing Presents:
The Alternative-Academic Careers
Workshop Series
The ASC Division on Corrections & Sentencing (DCS) is committed to facilitating access and opportunities to student growth and learning. As part of this commitment, DCS is kicking off a new series: Alternative-Academic Careers Workshop.
The world of careers students can choose with a criminal justice related PhD, outside of academia, is growing. Currently, however, there is a gap in knowledge, resources and services that faculty mentors and their departments can provide to students who are interested in learning more about these alternative career spaces. As a result, many students must find ways to facilitate their own connections, scrap together information about available jobs from the litany of online portals, and learn to navigate a completely different hiring and negotiation process – one with which their faculty advisor may not have much experience. Students must do this while also navigating the pressures and stigma of making the decision to leave a university setting. For those who have navigated the move outside of academia and into “alternative academic” careers, these paths and jobs are not typically celebrated in the same ways as academia-oriented peers. This is likely not due to lack of support, rather it may be because there is no clear equivalent to the traditional research, teaching and service contract in the practicing world.
The goals of the series include:
- Developing a greater understanding of alternative-academic career spaces
- Building connections with practitioners with strong research backgrounds across a variety of spaces
- Providing resources, materials, and support to navigate these alternative career spaces
Series Coordinators
Kelsey Kramer, PhD,
Visiting Assistant Professor of Sociology,
Bates College
Email
Shannon Magnuson, PhD,
Director of Influence & Storytelling,
Justice System Partners
Email
Committee Members
- Kim Kras, San Diego State University
- Tim Reling, Mississippi State University National Strategic Planning and Analysis Research Center
- Moriah Sharpe, American University
- David Pitts, Urban Institute
- Rochisha Shukla, Urban Institute
Join our email list!
To receive updates about time/date of sessions, webinar links, speaker information (including biographies and contact information), and resources for the group, please consider joining our email list.
To join, please email alt-academic-workshop-subscribe@googlegroups.com or dcs.studentgroup@gmail.com
Upcoming Workshops
AltAc 2026 Backstage Pass: What’s Really in Your Offer Letter
Tuesday, September 15, 2026, 2pm EDT/11am PDT
The DCS AltAc team is back with a new webinar series for 2026! It is designed to demystify key parts of the applied research job search: salary and negotiations!
Your first offer can feel like stepping on stage without a setlist. You know it matters, but the details can be hard to read at the moment. This webinar pulls back the curtain on salary and benefits in applied research settings so you can walk in informed, prepared, and ready to advocate for yourself. Even if you are not currently on the job market, understanding how compensation works across roles and sectors can help you ensure your applications, skills, and experience are market ready.
We will break down what actually makes up a compensation package, from base salary to health benefits, retirement, and the less obvious perks that can significantly shape your experience. We will talk through how these elements vary across sectors and roles, what is typically negotiable and what is not, and how to assess your own market value based on your training and experience. Along the way, we will demystify who you are negotiating with, whether that is a hiring manager, HR, or a recruiter, and how those dynamics shift your approach.
We will also cover how unions can shape compensation structures, what to consider when negotiating your start date, and how to think about promotion timelines and long-term growth from the very beginning. The goal is simple: to give you the language, context, and confidence to navigate your first offer with clarity and intention.
Register today!
Tuesday, September 15, 2026, 2pm EDT/11am PDT
Resources
June 2026 – Backstage Pass – Understanding your first offer: Salary and negotiations Presentation
October 2024 – AltAc Resource List
October 2024 – AltAc Rockstar Researcher Library
October 2024 – AltAc Industry Rundown
September 2024 – Vivian Elliott
- “Bringing Research to the Real World Through Technical Assistance”
August 2024 – Dr. Ntasha Bhardwaj
- “Professionally Evolving with an Evolving Global Marketplace”
- International development, International Gender Research, Technical Assistance and Policy
May 2024 – Dr. Ellen McCann-Sfecla
- “Transforming a Spark of Interest into a Twenty-Year Career”
- “Rock Your LinkedIn Profile”
- LinkedIn Profile, Personal Branding, Networking
- “Embedding Research in Practice as a Multidisciplinary Scholar”
- Behavioral Health Research, Evaluation and Program Research, Embedded Researcher, Practitioner Collaborations
- “Let’s Talk about What the Science Says, but Make it a Career”
- Science Community, Data Storytelling, Consulting, Research in Advertisement Agencies
- “Elevating Respect & Partnership with the World of Practice”
- Think tank, soft money, practitioner relationships, correctional research, policy, technical assistance
- “There’s No Need to Choose, Playing in All the Sandboxes”
- Non-profit research, think tank, consulting, international work, soft money
- “Helping You Do You & Finding Professional Freedom”
- Career Coaching, transitioning careers
- “AltAc 101/AMA”
- Alt-Ac Careers, Translating Experiences
- “Getting the Data on Data Science Careers”
- Marketing Your Skills, Data Science Careers
- “Your Dissertation – Your New Favorite Coffee Table Book”
- Publishers, Book Proposals
- “Flipping the Script: Applying Your PhD in Innovative Spaces”
- Interdisciplinary Research, Behavioral Health Science, AltAc Transition
Feb 2022 – Dr. Sarah Desmarais
- “But You Can’t Do That There!: Rethinking the Similarities Between Traditional & AltAc Spaces”
Jan 2022 – Researchers with Lived CJ Experience
- With Brandee Izquierdo, Dr. Christopher Beasley, Dr. Terrence S. McTier Jr, and Dr. Patrick Hibbard
- Lived CJ Experience, Graduate School, Student Support
Oct 2021 – Sh*t That Isn’t Said While On the Market
- With Dr. Amy Dezember, Dr. Jen Lerch, Dr. Kate Kempany, and Dr. Kim Kras
- “The Flexibility of the PhD in Federal Service”
- Federal Agency, Legislation Implementation, Reentry, Institutional Corrections
Jul 2021 – Legislative Director Jenn N. Weintraub
- “Taking Research to the Senate: Research Informed Policy Making”
- State Legislature, Working While ABD, Applied Policy, Legislative Director
Apr 2021 – Dr. Jameela Conway-Turner
- “A Multidisciplinary Lens to Justice-Related Research”
- Post-Doctoral Policy Fellow, Federal Agency, Interdisciplinary Research, Research Firm
- “The World is Your Oyster: International Development Research”
- International Research, Development Research
- “Thinking Outside the Box: Using Your PhD in Creative Spaces and in Creative Ways”
- Applied Research, Translational Work, Alt-Ac Hiring, Innovation & Creative PhD-ing
- “Playing in Both Sandboxes: Staying Active in Alt Ac and Traditional Academia”
- Consulting Firms, For-Profit Research, Working Students, Adjunct Teaching
Nov 2020 – NIJ Research Assistantship Roundtable
- With Shannon Magnuson
- Post-Doctoral Fellowship, University Centers, Tenure-Track Positions, Applications
- “Advocating for Yourself With Your Faculty Mentor”
- Advocating for Skills, Working with Faculty, Applied Research, Building a research agenda
- Market Skills, Federal Service, Non-Profit, University Centers, Criminal Justice System Work
Sep 2020 – Rep-ing Your Skills in Alt-Ac Job Markets
- With Dr. Kate Kempany and Shannon Magnuson