Joined CSU faculty in 2007.  Prior to her employment at CSU, she was an Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas where she served on the Gang Task Force of Southern Nevada.  

Dr. Kent's 20 years of research has mainly focused on various aspects of policing including national and international differences in municipal spending on police, racial/ethnic differences in police use of force and its circular relationship with homicides of police in the line of duty, the role of municipal-federal police partnerships on the ethnic profiling of immigrants by law enforcement, comparative analyses of use of force and spending on policing in the US and Canada, and the effect of law enforcement procedures/policies on wrongful convictions.

Dr. Kent¿s recent local research includes an evaluation of the CSU Police Department policies and police-citizen interactions and an observational study of police decision-making in Cuyahoga County funded by the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor.  Currently, she works with Dr. Rachel Lovell on her SAKI team, and is the Principal Investigator for an evaluation of the ShotSpotter technology funded by the City of Cleveland (co-PI Rachel Lovell).

Beyond research on policing, Dr. Kent has published in the broader area of law and society on topics including the role of politics on state level criminal justice policies, racial discrimination in the application of the death penalty, and the historical legacy of lynching on current death penalty statutes.

At CSU, Dr. Kent teaches the policing and juvenile crime courses and methods courses at the undergraduate and graduate levels. She also supervises the student-CSU police internship program.

On a personal note, Dr. Kent enjoys exposing her 5 young children to the amazing culture of NE Ohio.  She is proud to be a native of the Cleveland area whose family has lived in Cleveland for 5 generations.  Go Browns.