About

Dr. Karissa R. Pelletier is a criminologist and violence researcher whose work spans the intersection of criminal justice, public health, and policy. She specializes in firearm violence prevention, intimate partner violence, and crisis response — bringing rigorous quantitative methods to the questions that matter most for community safety.

Currently, Dr. Pelletier serves as Crisis Response Manager at Wayne State University's Center for Behavioral Health and Justice, where she leads grants and projects focused on crisis reimbursement structures, crisis program model fidelity, and system-level performance metrics. She is also a Faculty Associate in Arizona State University's School of Criminology and Criminal Justice.

Her postdoctoral training includes an NIH-funded T32 fellowship at the University of Michigan's Institute for Firearm Injury Prevention and a research fellowship at Temple University's Public Policy Lab. She earned her PhD and MS in Criminology and Criminal Justice from Arizona State University, and triple undergraduate degrees (Sociology, Psychology, Philosophy) from the University of Rhode Island, graduating Magna Cum Laude.

With 170+ Google Scholar citations and publications in leading journals including Homicide Studies, Journal of Family Violence, Injury Prevention, and Injury Epidemiology, Dr. Pelletier's research informs policy and practice at the intersection of violence prevention and criminal justice reform.