Dr. Maureen Kazaba

After retiring from a successful career as a lieutenant with the Chatham Township Police Department, Dr. Maureen Kazaba wanted to share her knowledge with the next generation of criminal justice professionals. She joined the County College of Morris (CCM) Criminal Justice faculty in 2017 and since then students have benefited from her inside view of the field.

At CCM, she has brought the Morris County Sheriff’s Office Bomb Squad Unit to campus so students can learn from the professionals who find, inspect, disarm and remove explosive devices and how they handle the challenges associated with their work. She regularly invites other members of the law enforcement community, including judges, forensic psychologists and the Morris County Sheriff’s Office K-9 Team, to talk with her students to provide them with a broad and comprehensive awareness of their field of interest. Working with other professors at the college, she also helped to develop a virtual reality class so students can gain hands-on experience on how to approach and analyze crime scenes where a murder has taken place.

The Virtual Crime Scene Capstone project allows students to set aside preconceived ideas about what they think may have happened and to use their critical thinking skills to determine what evidence should be collected to determine the manner and cause of death.

“Criminal Justice students are the future of law enforcement,” says Kazaba. “By training them in virtual reality, we offer them an opportunity to become better investigators in a way that is not possible in a traditional classroom.”

When possible, she likes to hold special presentations, such as the bomb squad’s visit, outside so other students walking by also can stop and learn.

Kazaba earned her bachelor’s in criminal justice from William Paterson University, a master’s degree in clinical counseling from Fairleigh Dickinson University, her Ph.D. in psychology from Capella University and MEd. in education from Seton Hall University.

In addition to earning those degrees, having worked as a lieutenant and now as a college professor, Kazaba also is a wife and mother to six children. She encourages those who wear multiple hats to set aside any expectation of perfection and to be happy with doing their best.

“Every day we do our best, and every day our best is different,” she says.