Media Contact: Adam Pope
Jeffrey Walker, Ph.D., and J. Frank Barefield, Jr.A transformative $10 million gift last year from J. Frank Barefield Jr. — the single largest gift given to the University of Alabama at Birmingham from an alumnus in the university’s history — is already hard at work making an impact.
Barefield, president of Abbey Residential and chairman of Crime Stoppers of Metro Alabama, designated $5 million of the gift to name the UAB J. Frank Barefield, Jr. Department of Criminal Justice in the College of Arts and Sciences, and a professor in the department, Jeffery T. Walker, Ph.D., has recently been named the first holder of the J. Frank Barefield, Jr. Endowed Chair in Communities and Crime. This position was approved by the Board of Trustees during its February 2023 meeting.
“Dr. Walker is the epitome of a citizen-scholar who is well deserving of the J. Frank Barefield, Jr. Endowed Chair in Communities and Crime,” said Kecia M. Thomas, Ph.D., dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. “I know our local community and the discipline of criminal justice will benefit greatly from this investment in Dr. Walker’s productive research program.”
Walker is an internationally renowned researcher in the discipline of criminology whose accomplishments have brought substantial international attention to UAB. Walker’s areas of expertise include neighborhoods and crime, police law, and computer forensics and investigations, and he has served as principal investigator on more than 20 externally funded grants, published more than 70 peer-reviewed manuscripts and served on the editorial board for 12 peer-reviewed journals. He has been the recipient of various awards, including the 2020 UAB Sam Brown Bridge Builder Award.
“In Birmingham, we have a violent-crime problem,” Walker said. “As endowed chair, I’ll be able to spend time working on community impact and reducing crime. I’ll be able to dedicate time to doing research solely on communities and crime because of this endowment.”
Walker has worked in this space for 30 years, and through his tireless work in the J. Frank Barefield, Jr. Department of Criminal Justice, he is creating a better and safer Birmingham by preparing students for careers in cybercrime and digital forensics, law enforcement, the urban built environment, and more — all while also conducting investigative research to better understand, predict and track patterns of violence to reduce and prevent crime in Birmingham and beyond. The endowed chair position will allow him to lean into more research toward that end, he says.
“Our interdisciplinary work to prevent and solve crimes — integrating digital and physical forensics, as well as data from multiple agencies, into investigations — is in high demand in Birmingham and across the U.S.,” Walker said. “With the support of a dedicated philanthropic partner [like J. Frank Barefield, Jr.], we can establish a nationally recognized research and action program in crime science that will advance the field, create exciting career opportunities for our graduates and make our community safer.”
Walker’s work aligns with the intent behind Barefield’s $5 million gift to criminal justice, which was given, in part, to help the department expand in predicting individuals’ risk factors for crime, collaborating with law enforcement on strategies for crime prevention and implementing interventions in neighborhoods to combat cycles of violence, as well as preparing UAB students for meaningful careers in the field of crime science.