Kathleen Ferraro

Kathleen Ferraro is the embodiment of the goals of the ASU Commission on the Status of Women. Dr. Ferraro’s research agenda has allowed her teaching and service activities to blend with her scholarship. She is nationally recognized for her expertise in the area of violence against women: her work has exposed the relationship between women’s violent victimization and their participation in criminal activity.

Her courses deal with poverty, welfare reform, homelessness and domestic violence. She has mentored many undergraduate students through research projects that have resulted in presentations at professional meetings and local organizations. Her excellence in teaching is underscored by her repeated nominations for the outstanding teacher award in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

Her service to the community is extensive. She is a frequent expert on battering for the criminal and civil courts and has trained the Maricopa County Attorney’s Staff and the Arizona Board of Clemency on issues of domestic violence.

Through her scholarship, activism, and teaching, Dr. Ferraro has raised awareness about the status of women in Arizona and has intervened in the institutional systems that perpetuate this unequal states. She enhances opportunities for women here at ASU, but especially for women who have been locked out and locked up.