As the first member of the Criminal Justice Program at UMass Lowell in 1977, Alan has a long history of contributing to the campus community. After earning master’s degrees in psychology and sociology and his doctorate in sociology from UMass Amherst, he completed a Postdoctoral National Institute of Health program in Family Violence and also held a Fullbright Professorship in the Netherlands. Alan is the author of numerous articles and three books on crime and violence and a former journal editor of Library and Archival Security. He has served three terms as a graduate coordinator and eleven years as Special Assistant to the Graduate Dean.  He currently serves on the Institutional Review Board for human subject research and as the University Ombuds and recently completed advanced mediation training.  He is a member of the editorial board of the Journal of the California Ombuds Caucus and a member of the Communications Committee of the newly formed International Ombudsman Association. Alan recently accepted the position of founding editor of the new professional journal for the International Ombuds Association.