Core Faculty
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College of Social and Behavioral Sciences
Tanya Settles oversees and facilitates the URR process for doctoral studies for the PhD in Public Policy and Administration and DPA programs in SPPA. She is a versatile researcher who focuses her attention on criminal justice reform, the role of communities in this reform, and the boundaries between the formal control of justice systems and the informal control of communities. Specifically, she has examined the design and implementation of restorative and community justice reforms using a variety of research methodologies. Dr. Settles also studies and writes about the economic and social impacts of legal commercial gambling. Over the several two years, Dr. Settles has conducted extensive research on the social and policy impacts of natural and man-made disasters, and issues associated with cultural competency as related to police-community relations. Tanya has teaching interests in the areas of research design and analysis, organization theory, ethics, and public policy formulation, implementation, and evaluation.
Dr. Settles earned her Ph.D. in Public Affairs from the School of Public Affairs at the University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center. Before joining Walden, Dr. Settles was the Director of Faculty for Colorado State University – Global Campus, a faculty member at the University of Texas at San Antonio, and has also worked at Norwich University in Vermont, the University of Colorado at Denver, and the Metropolitan State University of Denver.
Prior to a full-time academic career, she gained extensive practice-based knowledge about justice policy conducting program and policy evaluations while employed by the State of Colorado Legislature and she has nearly 20 years in policing experience from the Denver, Lakewood, Parker, and Littleton Colorado, Police Departments. Dr. Settles lives in Littleton, Colorado.
