She joined the department after completing her PhD in Criminal Justice at the University at Albany-SUNY. Before her doctoral studies, she worked as a forensic psychologist after earning her Master’s degree in Psychology from Moscow State University and later got a Master’s in Criminal Justice at Northeastern University in Boston. Dr. Tcherni’s main research interests focus on crime trends and patterns, structural causes of violence, specifically the connection between poverty and violence, and mental health and familial issues related to the poverty-violence link. Dr. Tcherni's web page.