Dr. Tony Gaskew, professor of criminal justice, has been named the associate dean of academic affairs at the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford.
“I look forward to working with all the faculty, staff, and students, in an effort to improve our current academic curricula and to create new and innovative academic programming moving forward,” Gaskew said.” “We have a rich pool of talented educators, so there should be many exciting times ahead.”
In his role as associate dean, Gaskew will provide senior leadership in all matters related to the course curricula, which includes the scheduling of classes and instructor assignments, curriculum compliance, course evaluations, division and program reviews, and the development of new degree programs.
Gaskew has served as a faculty member at Pitt-Bradford since 2006 and has established himself as one of the top scholars in the nation within the field of criminal justice. He is a Fulbright Hays Scholar, and has conducted critical ethnographic research in Africa and the Palestinian Territories.
He created one of the first crime scene investigation facilities in the nation at Pitt-Bradford in 2008. The CSI House continues to serve as a training hub for local, state, and federal criminal justice agencies across the country.
Gaskew is also the founding director of the nationally recognized Pitt-Bradford Prison Education Program, which has created post-secondary initiatives at Federal Correctional Institution McKean and State Correctional Institution Forest. In 2016, he was one of only 10 educators from across the country to be invited to the White House, to serve on a criminal justice committee under President Obama’s Administration.
He is a prolific writer and has authored over 40 publications, including three books. His latest book, “Stop Trying to Fix Policing: Lessons Learned from the Front Lines of Black Liberation,” examines the phenomena of police abolition from the perspective of the Black Radical Tradition. He is the book series editor of Critical Perspectives on Race, Crime and Justice.
As a faculty affiliate in Africana Studies and critical race theorist, he is a sought-after guest speaker and invited panelist. He was recently honored for his work as a lecturer in the establishment of a University of Pittsburgh course for first-year students across all Pitt campuses, Anti-Black Racism: History, Ideology, and Resistance. More than 5,000 students were enrolled in the course during the Fall 2021 term.
As the former director of the criminal justice program, he has served in several leadership roles, chairing numerous committees throughout his tenure. He currently serves as the Faculty Athletics Representative to the NCAA and as a member of the NCAA Minority Opportunities and Interests Committee.
Before coming to Pitt-Bradford, he had a 20-year career in law enforcement, working as a member of Miami Police Department’s Special Operations Unit and the U.S. Department of Justice’s Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force.
Gaskew is a graduate of the Leadership Academy for Department Chairs and the Emerging Leaders Program, both designed to prepare the next generation of higher education administrators. He holds a doctorate in conflict analysis, a Master of Science in criminal justice from Nova Southeastern University, and a Bachelor of Liberal Studies in behavioral science from Barry University.
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