Staff
Carl McCurley, Ph.D., Manager
Carl came to the Center in March, 2006, from the National Center for Juvenile Justice, where he worked on topics related to juvenile problem behaviors, including violent offending, violent sex offending, domestic violence, and substance use. His evaluation experience includes an evaluation of the Pennsylvania Bureau of Juvenile Justice Services’ aftercare (probation) program. He authored the 2006 report, Self-Reported Law-Violating Behavior from Adolescence to Early Adulthood in a Modern Cohort, for the National Institute of Justice. Carl has extensive experience with the analysis of survey data and data from official sources, such as courts and law enforcement agencies. He holds a B.A. in Government (University of Texas) and a Ph.D. in Political Science (Indiana University).
Contact: carl.mccurley@courts.wa.gov
Julia Appel, Senior Court Program Analyst
Julia joined the Center in July, 2008 after more than fourteen years with the Washington State’s Administrative Office of the Courts, most recently providing staff support to the Board for Judicial Administration. She brings expertise in such diverse areas as long-range planning, court performance measures, jury reform, and the judicial information systems, as well as broad experience with the legislative process. Before coming to AOC, Julia’s prior experience was in the technology sector providing tecnical support for IBM in New York and then going on to manage the national customer training programs for two large computer software companies in Boston and Los Angeles. Julia’s degree is in Organizational Behavior.
Jenni Christopher, Research Principal
Jenni has over twenty years of research experience with Washington State's Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC). She has conducted investigations and evaluations on a variety of court topics, including indigent defense, caseflow management, and judicial-performance assessment. Jenni has participated in court-improvement efforts at limited jurisdiction, superior, and appellate levels of court, and has provided business expertise to a wide range of JIS (Judicial Information System) application-development projects. During her masters and doctoral studies, Jenni taught courses in sociology, served as computing consultant for social-science data analysts, and conducted a variety of environmental and energy studies.
Contact: jenni.christopher@courts.wa.gov
Tom George, Ph.D., Senior Research Associate
Tom joined the Center staff in February, 2007. Previously, Tom was a Research Specialist at the Learning Sciences Research Institute at the University of Illinois at Chicago where he served as a program evaluator for federally funded program designed to improve teaching and mentoring in Chicago’s inner-city schools. Tom earned his B.A. degree in Psychology at Stanford University and his Ph.D. in Psychology at the University of Utah. Tom’s areas of interest and experience include research design, developmental psychology, and child and adolescent psychopathology.
Contact: thomas.george@courts.wa.gov
Janet L. McLane, Senior Research Associate
Janet joined the Center in February, 2009 after a twenty-seven year long career at Washington’s Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC). She was appointed by the Supreme Court as the state court administrator in July 2005, and retired from full-time state service in November 2007. During her tenure at the AOC, Janet gained extensive experience in court improvement planning and development. She led various efforts to modernize judicial policy and court rules, and was involved in numerous projects designed to strengthen judicial branch independence and accountability. Janet holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology and is a Fellow of the National Center for State Court’s Institute for Court Management.
Wei Wang, M.S., Research Assistant
Wei joined the Center staff in November 2006. Previously, Wei was a Research Associate at Medical University of South Carolina, working on medical research projects such as research protocol development, data management and statistical analysis for clinical trials. Wei holds a B.S. in Math (Beijing Normal University, China) and a M.S. in Biostatistics (University of South Florida).
Contact: wei.wang@courts.wa.gov
Jennifer Zipoy, M.A., Research Associate
Jennifer Zipoy is our most recent addition to the Washington State Center for Court Research, joining us on September 2, 2008. Jennifer's most recent research was with the Nevada Institute for Children's Research & Policy located at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, School of Public Health. Jennifer has been the primary researcher for many different studies, including studies for the Nevada State Legislature such as "Legislative Audit of Nevada’s Child Welfare Agencies, Study on the Health, Safety, Welfare, Civil and Other Rights of Children in Certain Government and Private Facilities in Nevada," and "Assessing the Needs of Detained Girls" for the Department of Juvenile Justice Services. Jennifer holds a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and a Master of Arts in Criminal Justice.
Contact: jennifer.zipoy@courts.wa.gov
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