After over two decades of service as an ATF Special Agent and Special Response Team member, preceded by his position as a parole officer in the Smith County Sheriff’s Office, Mark Brown will add another title Friday.
“Doctor of Philosophy in Criminology, Criminal Justice, and Public Administration,” he said with a smile.
Dr. Brown, Ph.D. is the first Ph.D. graduate at Tarleton State University School of Criminology, Criminal Justice, and Public Administration, which welcomed its first Ph.D. cohort in the fall of 2019.
Brown also has the distinction of being Tarleton’s first doctorate recipient in its 125-year history.
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“It was never my intention to be the first to graduate with a Ph.D. from Tarleton,” he said.
At one point, Brown was working full-time with the ATF and attending classes on Saturdays.
The Midlothian resident retired from the ATF in 2021, allowing time to be with his ailing father and to increase his studies.
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“I have a very supportive wife. My wife is awesome,” said Brown of his wife of 27 years, Kim. “My boys have been very supportive as well.”
He hopes he’s made them proud and hopes to improve policing nationwide through consulting services.
The ATF special agent, a member of the special response team, conducted undercover and criminal investigations, including responding to the intense search for the ‘D.C. sniper’ and spending a month in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina.
He is proud to combine his years on the ground with academia in formulating his dissertation, which took one year to complete.
“I want to assist agencies at looking at their data and saying okay we’ve gathered all of this, this is how we can use this to make the community safer and this is how we can use this to make our police department safer,” he said. “My pursuit of the Ph.D. was really to kind of marry those two worlds. Why do we collect data? And then, how do we process that data to mean something for law enforcement?”
Brown is a proponent of applying a data-driven approach to improve safety for communities, and law enforcement agencies and to build community trust.
He also plans on being a consultant for district attorney offices, specifically for ‘use of force’ cases involving police officers.
Dr. Alex del Carmen, Ph.D., Associate Dean of the College of Liberal and Fine Arts, chaired Brown’s dissertation committee and served as his major professor.
Brown says del Carmen has become a dear friend and someone he has been able to lean on during the process.
“I am proud to call him my friend,” said Brown.
