Carmen A. Rivera, MS

Biography

Carmen grew up in Renton, Washington State.  She earned a BA with Departmental Honors from Seattle University in Criminal Justice, then continued her education at the University of Liverpool in England, where she earned a MSc in the Psychology of Investigation.

She began her career as a counselor at Echo Glen Children's Center, a juvenile rehabilitation institution for juvenile offenders. Carmen left Echo Glen after nearly 5 years as a Juvenile Rehabilitation Coordinator, focused on transition and reentry programming for the youth. 

Carmen began at Echo Glen in the intensive management unit, working with male offenders who exhibited more aggressive behaviors, then spent time counseling younger youth who had sexually offended before her promotion.  As a counselor, she became proficient in Dialectic Behavioral Therapy (DBT).  After obtaining the position of a coordinator, Carmen gained particular interest in educating staff and youth in equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI). Carmen is a former certified EDI trainer for the State of Washington's Department of Children, Youth, and Families. This background and witnessing of racial and ethnic disparities in our juvenile justice system has influenced Carmen to teach with a racial equity lens, adopting a critical criminologist approach to our criminal legal system.

She continues her career in the community within King County as a Social Services Professional for YouthSource, working with out of school youth and young adults without their high school diplomas/GEDs. Carmen developed partnerships with non-profit, private, and other government organizations to create workforce opportunities for these youth and young adults. Her experience in both the prison system and community provides a complete view of our juvenile corrections system.

Carmen Rivera teaches undergraduate course including CRJS/SOCW 3030 Juvenile Justice, CRJS 1100 Introduction to Criminal Justice, CRJS 3600 Forensic Psychology, and CRJS 4300 Criminal Justice Organizations. She also teaches the graduate course CRJS 5140 Investigative Criminology and Offender Profiling.