Dr. Andre Rosay awarded contract from Office of the Governor

Dr. Andre Rosay was awarded a contract from the Office of the Governor for the fall of 2010 (October through December) to provide research services to support the Governor's Initiative to end the epidemic of domestic violence and sexual assault in Alaska.

His scope of work includes establishing baselines to inform the Governor's Initiative and building research and evaluation capacity to monitor the effectiveness of the Governor's Initiative. To establish baselines, he is beginning with a detailed analysis of case outcomes. This analysis will describe the processing of both cases and charges that are referred to the Alaska Department of Law for prosecution.

He is also structuring a recidivism study that will focus on offenders referred to the Alaska Department of Law for charges of sexual violence and intimate partner violence. Together, these studies are designed to provide a thorough understanding of developmental pathways to sexual violence and intimate partner violence. At the same time, these studies are designed to further our understanding of how the justice process can impact sexual violence and intimate partner violence by reducing recidivism and re-offense.

In addition, he is working with research and evaluation groups to design protocols that can be implemented as surveillance systems to track the effectiveness of the efforts included in the Governor's Initiative. He is also providing expertise to identify consistent data collection protocols, suitable data analysis plans and secure data archival strategies.

As part of this work, Rosay has been appointed to the Governor's Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Workgroup; members include state, local and tribal representatives. He also participates in meetings to impact sexual assault and domestic violence policy. He recently presented at the Sexual Assault Response Team (SART) Sustainability and Future Visions meeting. The meeting was a statewide discussion of SART and was designed to review the history of Sexual Assault Response Teams in Alaska, to discuss current practices and to define the future direction of Sexual Assault Response Teams in Alaska. He also recently met with victims' advocates and behavioral health providers to develop a foundational framework for victims and survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault. And in early October, Rosay spoke at the Alaska District Attorneys Conference in Anchorage on the results of the Alaska Victimization Survey. Attendees included district attorneys from all four judicial districts and assistant attorneys general from the Department of Law.

Rosay is the principal investigator for the first statewide victimization survey in Alaska. Additional surveys are planned for spring 2011. He is the director of the Justice Center at the University of Alaska Anchorage and a member of the Board of Directors for the Alaska Native Justice Center. He is actively involved in research and service to reduce violence against women in both urban and rural Alaska. With significant federal and state funding, Rosay has worked closely with tribal and state partners to transform research into policy and practice. He has extensive experience designing and implementing programs of research in Alaska Native communities. He was a consultant for the Section 904 Task Force (2005 VAWA Reauthorization, Public Law 109-162, Title IX, Section 904[a]) and is a consultant for the current Violence Against Indian Women in Indian Country Study funded by the National Institute of Justice. He was the first recipient of the Ulu Award from the Alaska Native Justice Center in recognition of his dedication and support to collaborative justice research in Alaska.

For more information, contact Barbara Armstrong at (907) 786-1815 or barbara.armstrong@uaa.alaska.edu.