Assistant Professor J.Z. Bennett of UC’s School of Criminal Justice is a self-described “Temple Made student,” having earned his B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. in Criminal Justice from Temple University in Philadelphia. He also completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the Center for Urban Education at the University of Pittsburgh. Bennett joined the School of Criminal Justice in 2022, where he quickly made an impact with his research into, among other areas, juvenile life without parole, and his work with the Urban Youth Leadership Academy and The Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program.

Bennett tells us about serving as an editor for the recently published Black Freedom Struggle in Urban Appalachia, a community-centered book featuring various perspectives on Black freedom work being done in Pittsburgh, the largest urban center in Appalachia. The book features a number of contributors — from artists to academics, high school student to organizers — and is organized around five themes central to the exploration of Appalachia as a place and the impact of carcerality on the region.

In this episode, Benett also talks with us about growing up in Philadelphia in a family full of law enforcement officers, as well as experiencing personal tragedy in a city that struggles with the effects of gun violence. He also shares about his experience graduating high school at 15, becoming a first-generation college student while still very much a minor and more.

CECH Chats welcomes Professor Dave Kelley of the School of Human Services. Kelley is a renowned Sport Administration professor and coordinator of the Online Master’s Degree Program here at UC. He began his career as a teacher, coach and athletic administrator in Ohio's Vinton County Local Schools before forging a path in academia. Kelley has over two decades experience in higher education and has significantly impacted the sport administration field through his innovative teaching methods and extensive professional expertise.

Author of a 2012 book about sports fundraising, Kelley has a new work releasing soon titled Internship Playbook: Skills and Strategies for Sport Industry Success. The book aims to distill Kelley’s extensive experience with sport administration internship work to share guidance for students looking to gain an advantage in pursuit of a rewarding career.

In this episode, Kelley talks with us about the role sports played in his early days, growing up in Pittsford, New York, as well as his journey from public school roles into academia. He reveals how he arrived at the idea for the Internship Playbook and shared one tip he considers essential for anyone completing an internship. He also tells the story of how he came up with the idea for the Cincinnati Public Schools All-Star Showcase, an annual basketball event that benefits Project Connect’s mission of advocating for and helping CPS students experiencing homelessness.

On the debut episode of "CECH Chats," we hear from faculty members and students from the School of Criminal Justice about their work under a Department of Justice/Office of Violence Against Women grant awarded in 2024. The project, titled "Language Access Barriers to Justice Among Victims of Violence Against Women with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities," aims to collect data through interviews and focus groups around the experiences victims with intellectual and or developmental disabilities, aka IDD, face when reporting violent crimes.

While future episodes of "CECH Chats" will focus primarily on one-on-one or small group conversations, for this debut episode, we have something special: A wide-ranging presentation moderated by project lead, associate professor Brittany Hayes, featuring co-principal investigators Ráchael Powers, also an associate professor in the School of Criminal Justice, and associate professor Amanda Simmons from the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders in UC's College of Allied Health Sciences. We also heard from co-investigator Leigh Anne McKingsley from the ARC’s National Center on Criminal Justice and Disability. The ARC is a national organization that promotes and protects the human rights of individuals with IDD.

Students at the undergraduate, master's and doctorate levels involved in various stages of the grant-funded work are also included in this conversation.

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