Watts Briefly

•    Alum promoted to Army brigadier general
•    Professor receives national young professionals award
•    MSW student creates ‘A Stall for All’ in Tucson library restrooms
•    Youth Justice Lab partners with county in juvenile records event

Army Col. Bryan L. Babich, an ASU graduate in criminal justice originally from Sierra Vista, Arizona, was promoted to brigadier general during an Aug. 9 ceremony at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.

Babich, director of the fort’s Mission Command Center of Excellence, is a career field artillery officer. In addition to his Bachelor of Science from ASU, he also earned a master’s degree in national security and strategic studies from the Naval War College and a master’s degree in strategic studies from the Army War College.

His awards and decorations include the Legion of Merit with one oak leaf cluster; the Bronze Star medal with one oak leaf cluster; the Defense Meritorious Service Medal with two oak leaf clusters; and the Meritorious Service Medal with one oak leaf cluster.

In the photo above, Babich’s wife, Jenn (left) and father, retired Army Col. Jim Babich (right) pin stars on his shoulders during the ceremony. 

Marva Goodson (right), an assistant professor in the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice, recently received the Young Professionals Honors Award from the National Urban League.

The award “recognizes trailblazers within the (National Urban League) movement who have made significant contributions to their community and embody the spirit of the National Urban League’s mission.” Goodson said she was recognized for her research on women experiencing incarceration who have different amounts and types of resources available to them. The disparities can affect the intensity of their supervision, or their ability to gain access to employment opportunities upon release.

In addition, she said the award celebrates her service as mentor to minoritized scholars and seven years of service as co-founding director of Youth Advancement Through Athletics, a youth development program that served predominantly Black and Brown adjudicated youth attending a court-run high school.

The NUL’s mission is to “to help African-Americans and others in underserved communities achieve their highest true social parity, economic self-reliance, power and civil rights.”                    

Lindsey Joy Smith (left) is starting her second year in the MSW program at ASU’s Tucson location by putting her social work education into action. She successfully negotiated with downtown Tucson’s Joel D. Valdez Public Library to place feminine hygiene dispensers and products in 14 women’s and nongender restroom stalls on all three of its public-access floors.

Smith said her proposal, called “A Stall for All,” earned her a $5,000 ASU Principled Innovation Grant to support the research and installation, which began this month.

Smith said that when needed, feminine hygiene products are needed urgently. In public places, there’s only one location, a public restroom stall, where pads and tampons can be used.

“Like toilet paper, they should also be provided free of charge, in the location they are needed,” she said.

Smith will spend 10 weeks monitoring the products’ use in the library, surveying patrons about it. After tracking the data, she said she plans to continue advocating for public restroom equity, and not just in the downtown Tucson library.

“Everyone deserves a stall for all,” she said.

ASU’s Youth Justice Lab at the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice, directed by Professor Adam Fine (right), is partnering with the Judicial Branch of Arizona in Maricopa County to present an event to destroy criminal records of one-time Maricopa County juvenile criminal defendants.

Adults with juvenile delinquency records in the county can have those records destroyed, their civil rights restored, a juvenile adjudication set aside or a marijuana offense expunged through Project Restore: My Records & My Rights, 9 a.m. to noon Saturday, Sept. 7, at the Durango Juvenile Court Center, 3131 W. Durango St., Phoenix.

Here is more information about the event and how to start the process.          

The event is presented by the Judicial Branch and the Youth Justice Lab in partnership with the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office, Maricopa County Juvenile Probation Department, Maricopa County Office of the Public Advocate and Maricopa County Clerk’s Office.