Christian Buerger: Life experiences drive research and teaching

Posted on March 20, 2023 by Leslie Wells

O’Neill Assistant Professor Christian Buerger was attending school in East Germany when the Berlin Wall was torn down and Germany was reunified.

“The transitional period that followed afterward was extremely difficult,” he recalls.

During that time, everyday life began to change quickly for Buerger and the reunification brought new challenges for him and his family. The school he attended in East Germany didn’t offer the classes he needed to take to attend college. But after the West German system of school choice was implemented, his family was able to find a better setting for him. But even that wasn’t without its challenges.

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O’Neill alum creates first-of-its-kind community response program

Posted on March 6, 2023 by Leslie Wells

Alicia Dinkeldein (BSCJ’22) was inspired by an O’Neill class to create a first-of-its-kind response program.

The catalyst for Alicia Dinkeldein’s (BSCJ’22) current career came during her Principles of Public Safety class in 2019. O’Neill Assistant Professor Peter Federman was showing a video of Skid Row, a well-known homeless camp in Los Angeles. The video focused on the community-based approach officers take in getting to know the people who live there and connecting them with resources.

The personal connections caught Dinkeldein’s attention.

“I realized that was what I wanted to do,” she says. “I wanted to make one-on-one connections with people to figure out what they truly needed so I could help them.”

What she saw in class that day eventually sparked a new position she would create from scratch. At the time, Dinkeldein was not only an O’Neill student earning her Criminal Justice degree, she also was working for Indianapolis EMS Ambulance Service.

Dinkeldein became part of IEMS’ community response team at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, following up with people who called 911 but didn’t meet the criteria for ambulance transport due to IEMS’ Treat from Home protocol.

“Some individuals we encountered were homebound with transportation insecurities and needed assistance with getting food and medications —they weren’t ambulance-level emergencies,” she explains.

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O’Neill’s Eric Grommon named Paul H. O’Neill Professor

Posted on February 27, 2023 by Leslie Wells

A man with a soft smile and beard is wearing a gray suit, standing in a hallway lined with windows. — Paul H. O’Neill Professor Eric Grommon

In 2011, Eric Grommon was on the hunt for jobs after completing his Ph.D. the previous year. He envisioned himself working within government organizations focused on research and analysis in the criminal justice field, but then an opportunity to work at O’Neill popped up on his radar.

“I got a nudge from colleagues who said O’Neill seemed to be a place that would give me opportunities to work with practitioners to figure out how the justice system impacts the community,” he recalls.

In the 11 years since he arrived on campus, Grommon has used his role as an applied criminologist to focus on corrections, the reentry of justice-involved individuals, and the evaluation of justice system programs, policies, and operations.

“Professor Grommon has a passion for improving governance and societal well-being, and has pursued exemplary, impactful research during his career,” said Siân Mooney, dean of the O’Neill School.

In January 2023, his dedication to advancing the criminal justice field led to a new honor. He was named a Paul H. O’Neill Professor within the O’Neill School, a professorship established in 2019 through a $30 million gift from IU alumnus Paul H. O’Neill.

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Mayor’s office internship adds to foundation for policy work

Posted on February 20, 2023 by Leslie Wells

A man stands smiling wearing a blue shirt and suit jacket. He's in front of the seal for the Indianapolis Mayor's Office, with the American flag and Indiana flag behind him. — Henok Cronin, a Policy Studies major, interned with the Indianapolis Office of Public Health and Safety in fall 2022.

From Henok Cronin’s desk in the City County Building in downtown Indianapolis, he could look down on the hustle and bustle on Market Street every day.

The Indianapolis skyline on a partly cloudy day. — The view from OPHS during Henok Cronin’s internship.

“I couldn’t believe that was my view,” he says, laughing.

In fall 2022, he was working with Indianapolis’ Office of Public Health and Safety as part of an internship with the mayor’s office. His work centered around projects to address the root causes of crime and reduce violence in Indianapolis neighborhoods.

“City government is very important to the community,” he says. “This internship was my first chance to get a feel for what it’s like to work in policy and government.”

To Cronin, policy work provides an opportunity to make a difference in people’s lives here and around the world. That includes those in the East African nation of Ethiopia where he was born.

“Africa has my heart because we need a lot of help,” says Cronin, an O’Neill Policy Studies major. “That’s why I want to build my knowledge here and use it to help my people back home.”

Cronin was adopted at age 12 and moved to Central Indiana. Eleven years later, he’s in his final year at IUPUI. He had been searching for an internship that would provide him with the experience he needed to begin a career in policy. Once he heard about the mayor’s internship program, he knew he had found it.

“My internship with OPHS through the mayor’s office gave me a lot of hands-on experience,” he says.

He encourages other O’Neill students to go through the program as well. The online application for summer 2023 is open through March 31, 2023. There are six paid positions available. Cronin says students work 20 hours a week and are matched with opportunities based on the degree they’re pursing and their interests.

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On the Black Hand Side

Posted on February 13, 2023 by Leslie Wells

smiling and wearing a black tweed blazer, a dark green turtleneck, and a pearl necklace. — O’Neill’s RaeVen Ridgell is pursuing her MPA in Social and Innovation Change.

Written by: RaeVen Ridgell, O’Neill MPA candidate

“Gimme a five, on the Black hand side.”

As a child, we used to say this chant gleefully. It was natural to do the entire chant as we played hand games in my grandmother’s front yard. Under her eye, we joyed in the summertime. It was the only time of year I was able to spend with my Indiana family since I lived full time in Arizona. I used to love catching fireflies, running around, and singing loudly in family talent shows to Motown.

These memories are not exclusive to me, they are a common family theme; however, summer always delineated when we got to the Fourth of July. My family didn’t celebrate the Fourth. I knew that it was because at the time of America’s Independence, my people weren’t free, but I would never truly fathom what this all meant until I became an adult.

The indoctrination of “on the Black hand side” was my culture’s way of reminding me to bask in the glow of my melanin. The trips to Indiana were so I would be able to spend time around my family and our Black community, but my grandmother’s watchful eye was because she had witnessed cruel things happen to little Black kids if they went too far into the white neighborhoods.

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