Mary Atwell

Roanoke, VA

Mary Atwell is a Professor of Criminal Justice at Radford University where she also chairs the Criminal Justice department.  A Virginia citizen since 1972, Mary grew up in St. Louis, Missouri and attended Webster College and Saint Louis University.  Much of her research has involved topics related to capital punishment and she has published Evolving Standards of Decency:  Popular Culture and Capital Punishment (2004) and Wretched Sisters:  Examining Gender and Capital Punishment (2007).  She is at work on a revised edition of Wretched Sisters and on a study of the execution of foreign nationals in the United States.

Mary served on the board of VADP from 2003 to 2008.  She also serves on the Board of Directors of the Women’s Resource Center of the New River Valley and of Bethany Hall, a residential drug treatment center for women in Roanoke.