Cicely Cottrell, Ph.D.

About Cicely

Dr. Cicely J. Cottrell is a restorative justice trainer, educator and researcher. She mostly enjoys her role as an educator, where she challenges and supports her students in reimagining and reinventing the meaning of justice.

Because of these experiences, she teaches her students that a great deal of compassion and mercy are needed when making decisions that not only impact one’s freedom, but the ability for people to acquire their basic needs to survive, such as food, water, housing, education, health care, communication, and transportation. Dr. Cottrell agrees with Bryan Stevenson in that, “to be fully human, we must pay attention to suffering, poverty, unfairness, and injustice.”

Dr. Cottrell has gained several years of criminal justice system experience in various agencies, such as the Kentucky Department of Corrections, Administrative Office of Kentucky Courts, and the United States House Committee on the Judiciary.

Dr. Cottrell is currently researching and publishing in the areas of restorative justice, college student engagement, and youth homicides by police with intentions to push for accountability and transparency in law enforcement use of force policies and procedures. She received her PhD in Sociology and Criminology from Howard University with a certificate in Women’s Studies, her M.S. in Administration of Justice is from the University of Louisville, and her B.A. in Political Science is from Western Kentucky University.

Dr. Cottrell was active in the Breonna Taylor and police reform conversation; she’s appeared in the HuffPost’s How Louisville Can Still Get Justice for Breonna Taylor, on WLKY News’ Professors: LMPD reforms in Breonna Taylor settlement show promise, shortcomings, and on WFPL’s In Conversation: The Breonna Taylor Decision and Its Aftermath. Read more about Dr. Cottrell.

Publications

• Cottrell, C. J., Williams, C, and Shinault, C. (2023). Vulnerability through storytelling: A restorative approach for disengaged college students. In Vah Seliskar, H. (Ed.), Restorative Justice in the 21st CenturyJ.
• Jones-Brown, D., Ruffin, J., Blount-Hill, K.L., Dawson, A., and Cottrell, C. J. (2020). Hernandez v. Mesa and Police Brutality for Youth Homicides Before and After the Death of Michael Brown. Criminal Law Bulletin, 56(5).
• Cottrell, C. (2018). Racial Differences in Anger and Depression as Mediators in the Relationship Between School Suspension and Juvenile Delinquency: A Test of General Strain Theory. Journal for the Advancement of Educational Research International, 12 (1).

Honors & Affiliations

• Spalding University Trustee Award for Outstanding Faculty, 2025
• Presentation Academy Tower Award for Women Leaders in Government Justice & Law, 2023
• Member of Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences
• Member of the American Society of Criminology
• Member of the Coalition for Juvenile Justice
• Member of The Council of Juvenile Justice Administrators
• Member of the National Association of Blacks in Criminal Justice
• Member of the National Association of Community and Restorative Justice