FIU experts available to discuss aftermath of police killings, civil unrest

Race Relations and Politics

Carleen Vincent-Robinson
Senior Instructor and Associate Chair
Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice
Steven J. Green School of International & Public Affairs
Carleen Vincent-Robinson's current research interests include mass incarceration and race/ethnic relations. She participated in a $250,000 research project assessing Florida's preparedness for terrorist attacks and other catastrophic events involving mass casualties. Prior to her appointment at FIU, Vincent-Robinson held a variety of positions, including as a judicial clerk for the appellate court.
Phone: 305-348-3882
Email: vincentc@fiu.edu

Dionne Stephens
Associate Professor
Department of Psychology
College of Arts, Sciences & Education
Dionne Stephens is an associate professor of psychology. A key goal of Dr. Stephens' work is to identify factors that can help prevent continued health disparities, particularly within understudied and marginalized communities. She is available to speak about how to make sense of recent events. She can also speak about how faculty mentors can support black students.
Phone: 305-348-1809
Email: stephens@fiu.edu

Andrea Jean Queeley
Associate Professor
Department of Global Sociocultural Studies
Steven J. Green School of International & Public Affairs
Andrea Jean Queeley is an expert on race, civil unrest, and culture as it pertains to Latin America and the Caribbean. Her research concerns African Diasporic migration and global structural inequalities.
Phone: 305.348.6289
Email: aqueeley@fiu.edu

Danielle Clealand
Associate Professor
Department of Politics and International Relations
Steven J. Green School of International & Public Affairs
Danielle Clealand's research examines comparative racial politics, group consciousness, black public opinion and racial inequality with a focus on the Spanish-speaking Caribbean and the United States. Her current projects focus on racism and black consciousness in Puerto Rico and political attitudes and identity among Afro-Latinos in the United States.
Phone: 305-348-3295
Email: danielle.clealand@fiu.edu

Law

Eric Carpenter
Professor of Law
College of Law
Eric Carpenter is a professor of law at Florida International University and can speak to both the Insurrection Act, which allows the president to deploy military troops in the U.S. to suppress civilian disorder and rebellion, and the Posse Comitatus Act, which limits the military from performing law enforcement duties. He specializes in criminal law, criminal procedure and litigation, evidence, military justice and national security.
Phone: 910-916-6565
Email: ercarpen@fiu.edu 

Phyllis Williams Kotey
Professor of Law
College of Law
Phyllis Williams Kotey is a senior judge, clinical professor of law at FIU, and director of FIU Law’s Externship and Pro Bono Program. She teaches internationally and nationally for the National Judicial College, the country’s leading educator of judges.  As a former prosecutor, she trained police officers and investigated numerous major crimes including crimes against woman and children, police misconduct and murder. She served as chair and vice-chair of the Florida Supreme Court Judicial Ethics Advisory Commission and on the National Advisory Board for the Committees on Bias in the Courts.  She also served as chair of the Florida Bar’s Criminal Law Section Executive Council and member of the Code and Rules Committee, among others. Kotey is available to speak on police misconduct, implicit bias in the legal system and criminal law.
Phone: 305-348-5950
Email: koteyp@fiu.edu

H. Scott Fingerhut
Professor of Law
College of Law
H. Scott Fingerhut is a professor and the assistant director of the FIU Law Trial Advocacy Program, with more than 25 years of law teaching experience and over 30 years as an AV-Preeminent-rated state and federal trial and appellate lawyer.  A former prosecutor, Fingerhut specializes in criminal defense as well as the defense of law students seeking admission before The Florida Board of Bar Examiners and lawyers facing discipline by The Florida Bar.  A three-time professor of the year and listed in Best Lawyers in America, Fingerhut has chaired and serves on numerous Florida Bar, state, and local boards, committees, and associations, and is available to speak on topics related to fostering a fairer, more responsive, better functioning criminal justice system, including all aspects of pre-trial, trial, and post-trial criminal law, criminal procedure, and the Bill of Rights.
Phone: 305-348-8095
Email: fingerhut@fiu.edu

Ediberto Roman
Professor of Law
College of Law
Ediberto Roman’s research interest includes analyzing the construction and interpretation of constitutional law, constitutional law, critical race theory and social theory generally. His notoriety and expertise in the immigration area also recently led Professor Roman to be asked by the Southern Poverty Law Center, arguably the country’s leading civil rights public interest law firm, to advise them on a host of matters. A sought after speaker and public intellectual, he is frequently interviewed by local, national and international print, television and radio news outlets on issues related to diversity, and immigration policy. Roman is available for interviews in English and Spanish.
Phone: 305-348-7254 
Email: romane@fiu.edu

Michele Anglade
Lecturer of Law
College of Law
Michele Anglade is a faculty member at the College of Law. Anglade specializes in civil rights and can speak with respect to topics pertaining to race and law and racial justice.
Phone: 305-348-0009
Email: angladem@fiu.edu

Communication

María Elena Villar, PhD
Associate professor, Department of Communication
Co-Director, Steven Cruz Institute for Media, Science and Technology
College of Communication, Architecture + The Arts
Villar teaches courses in research methods, multicultural communication, and advanced seminars in strategic communications. Her research focuses on culturally competent communication and communication as a tool to reduce social disparities, with a focus on science and health communication.  She has published her work in dozens of interdisciplinary Journals such as Journal for Immigrant and Minority Health, Journal of Hispanics in Education, Science Communication, Journal of Community Practice, Journal of Consumer Marketing, and Howard Journal of Communication, among others. She has been PI or co-PI on two NIH-funded pilot projects around health disparities and how minorities address health issues. In her career as a researcher and consultant, Dr. Villar has focused on diverse topics that range from culture and communication, evaluation of program outcomes, and racial and ethnic disparities. 
Villar is available for interviews in English and Spanish.
Email: mevillar@fiu.edu