{"id":51298,"date":"2024-07-22T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-07-22T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/?p=51298"},"modified":"2024-08-15T17:10:28","modified_gmt":"2024-08-15T22:10:28","slug":"former-special-agent-to-receive-tarleton-states-first-ph-d","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/former-special-agent-to-receive-tarleton-states-first-ph-d\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Special Agent to Receive Tarleton State’s First Ph.D."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

STEPHENVILLE, Texas \u2014 Tarleton State University will mark another milestone July 26 when Dr. Mark Brown crosses the stage at summer commencement to receive his doctorate in criminal justice, the first Ph.D. ever conferred by the university.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"mark
Dr. Mark Brown will receive the first Ph.D. awarded by Tarleton State University this Friday at summer commencement.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The School of Criminology, Criminal Justice and Public Administration welcomed its first Ph.D. cohort in the fall of 2019, and Dr. Brown is the first to graduate from it. His wife of 27 years, Kim, his mother and in-laws will be at graduation to cheer for him, along with a large group of extended family, friends and former coworkers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI am honored and humbled,\u201d said Dr. Brown. \u201cIt was certainly not my intent to be the \u2018first,\u2019 I just simply wanted to complete in a reasonable timeframe.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2019 Brown was working full-time in law enforcement while completing his master\u2019s degree in criminal justice at Tarleton State when he heard that a doctoral program was in the works. The program\u2019s student focus and practitioner approach appealed to him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere are many programs that provide a purely academic approach, but Tarleton State is one of only two schools that provide a practitioner approach to the Ph.D.,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is crucial in near and future development of criminal justice policy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Brown retired from federal law enforcement in 2021 after working as a special agent for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives with the United States Department of Justice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI worked the first part of my career in criminal investigations, and the latter two-thirds of my career were as a member of Special Response Team 3 as a tactical operator and medic. I retired as Commander of SRT 3,\u201d he said. While doing his graduate studies he worked as an interim police chief in the spring of 2022 and as a full-time faculty member at Dallas Baptist University from June 2022 until May 2023 when he started his dissertation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cObviously, full-time work makes any academic effort more challenging,\u201d Dr. Brown said. \u201cI had to be disciplined in time management and unfortunately missed out on some social and family events, but I tried to keep those missed opportunities to a minimum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was fortunate to have a supporting wife and family and was able to retire and free up the time necessary to complete my dissertation. I was also very fortunate to have a very supportive dissertation committee \u2014 they never pressured me but were always available to provide support and guidance through my dissertation phase.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Alex del Carmen, Associate Dean of the College of Liberal and Fine Arts, chaired Dr. Brown\u2019s dissertation committee and served as his major professor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI cannot imagine a better individual to have been the recipient of the first Ph.D. awarded in Tarleton State\u2019s history,\u201d Dr. del Carmen said. \u201cHis practical experience as a federal agent with the ATF coupled with his academic formation will continue to make Tarleton proud.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Diane Stearns, Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs, said the awarding of Tarleton State\u2019s first Ph.D. highlights the university\u2019s 125-year commitment to academic excellence and dedication to addressing critical community and workforce needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDr. Brown\u2019s academic achievements, in tandem with his vision and extensive practical experience, will continue to reflect positively on his time at our university as he advances his work.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moving forward, Dr. Brown\u2019s post-graduation plans include teaching and providing consulting services to criminal justice agencies, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe criminal justice system is being reformed in the wake of multiple national incidents,\u201d he said. \u201cWhile change is necessary, not all change is proving beneficial to the whole of society. It is my desire to assist agencies in assessment of policy, training and community interaction to ensure they are providing excellent public safety to their citizens.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To learn more about Tarleton State\u2019s criminal justice programs, including undergraduate and graduate degrees as well as certificate programs, visit https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/criminaljustice\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

STEPHENVILLE, Texas \u2014 Tarleton State University will mark another milestone July 26 when Dr. Mark Brown crosses the stage at summer commencement to receive his doctorate in criminal justice, the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":473,"featured_media":51299,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[382,422,423,424,425,426],"tags":[430,438,440],"class_list":["post-51298","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-homepage","category-morestories","category-academics-research","category-arts-events","category-campus-community","category-honors-achievements","tag-academic-affairs","tag-college-of-graduate-studies","tag-college-of-liberal-fine-arts"],"acf":{"image":false},"author_meta":{"display_name":"ehellmund@tarleton.edu","author_link":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/author\/ehellmundtarleton-edu\/"},"featured_img":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/65\/2024\/07\/Mark_Brown_2024-2-300x200.jpg","coauthors":[],"tax_additional":{"categories":{"linked":["_Homepage<\/a>","_morestories<\/a>","Academics & Research<\/a>","Arts & Events<\/a>","Campus & Community<\/a>","Honors & Achievements<\/a>"],"unlinked":["_Homepage<\/span>","_morestories<\/span>","Academics & Research<\/span>","Arts & Events<\/span>","Campus & Community<\/span>","Honors & Achievements<\/span>"]},"tags":{"linked":["Academic Affairs<\/a>","College of Graduate Studies<\/a>","College of Liberal & Fine Arts<\/a>"],"unlinked":["Academic Affairs<\/span>","College of Graduate Studies<\/span>","College of Liberal & Fine Arts<\/span>"]}},"comment_count":0,"relative_dates":{"created":"Posted 2 years ago","modified":"Updated 2 years ago"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Posted on July 22, 2024","modified":"Updated on August 15, 2024"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Posted on July 22, 2024 8:00 am","modified":"Updated on August 15, 2024 5:10 pm"},"featured_img_caption":"Man in a suit standing outdoors with trees in the background.","series_order":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51298","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/473"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51298"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51298\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}