Launching the Innovation Center for Youth Justice

With generous support from the Commonwealth of Virginia, JMU is proud to launch the nation’s first Innovation Center for Youth Justice. The new center represents a collaboration among the departments of Justice Studies and Social Work, Dean Robert Aguirre (Arts and Letters), Dean Sharon Lovell (Health and Behavioral Studies), and noted JMU alum John Tuell (Social Work, ‘79), founder and Executive Director of the Robert F. Kennedy National Resource Center for Juvenile Justice.

For Tuell, a well-known expert in this field, the center offers a unique opportunity to transform the youth justice system based on research in adolescent brain development. The goal is to increase positive youth opportunities, strengthen accountability, and enhance community safety. As Tuell indicates, “We seek a fair, just and equal opportunity for our nation’s most vulnerable youth to realize a future we would want as if they were our own.”

Heading the center will be Rita Poteyeva, PhD, associate professor of justice studies, who will oversee several initiatives:

• Expanding the cross-disciplinary Youth Justice minor, housed jointly in Arts and Letters and Health and Behavioral Studies;
• Seeking external funding to support student and faculty research about youth justice practice and policy;
• Establishing a learning network to offer training and field-related professional development to a current and future youth justice workforce;
• Launching a new, expansive internship program for JMU students, which draws on Tuell’s extensive connections to youth justice leaders and practitioners in jurisdictions across the United States.

The center’s equal emphasis on cutting-edge research, undergraduate education and workforce development will benefit the Commonwealth and increase JMU’s national visibility as a research university known for producing thoughtful, principled and career-ready graduates.