Cynthia Lum said she’s motivated not by her past experiences as a Baltimore police officer, but by what she sees as a future for policing.
She’s doing that through her work in the Center for Evidence-Based Crime Policy at George Mason, where Lum is a director.
The center is devoted to not only generating high quality research, but trying to get that research used in practice. It is these efforts and others that earned her the Earle C. Williams Medal for Excellence in Social Impact, which she will receive at Commencement.
She appreciates the award as a reflection of the work of the center, which uses rigorous, research-based study of criminology and criminal justice to serve as an informational resource for practitioners and the policy community.
“It’s wonderful that the university recognizes both research excellence and also the impact that we have with that research,” she said. “It sends a good message: ‘This is what we are about, it’s what distinguishes us.’”
“What … makes Mason unique, what makes us great, is that we have those connections across different types of communities. Not just local, state, regional, national, or international. But across diverse communities within those realms, and that’s really important.”
May 18, 2017 / Adapted from a story by Jamie Rogers