Research Scientist
Ph.D., Experimental Psychology
Texas Christian University, C.A.D.C
Email: j.pankow@tcu.edu
Dr. Jen Pankow celebrated her 11th anniversary in 2021 as a member of the TCU IBR investigator team. Prior to completing her graduate studies in 2010 in Experimental Psychology at TCU, she served in different roles working with adults receiving substance use treatment at the Illinois Sheridan Correctional Center. Her experience at Sheridan as a case manager with TASC Inc. and as a licensed substance use counselor with Gateway Foundation and Westcare agencies, provided clinical experience that continues to inform her research at the IBR. In the past decade, she has collaborated on two large-scale federal research initiatives as Project Director: the 6-year Criminal Justice Drug Abuse Treatment Studies (CJ-DATS 2) protocols; one testing implementation strategies designed to improve access to HIV care in the community, and a second study testing organizational strategies to implement medication-assisted treatment options for individuals with an opioid and/or alcohol addiction. As Project Director on the 6-year Sustainable HIV Risk Reduction Strategies for Criminal Justice Systems Project (DRR2), she was instrumental in developing and testing an app for improving decision-making skills to reduce health risks for adults on probation. She also served as an Investigator on the Juvenile Justice Translational Research on Interventions for Adolescents in the Legal System (JJ-TRIALS), and is lead author on a study being prepared for submission that examines the mediating effect of substance use treatment on recidivism for youth under supervision.
Currently, Dr. Pankow serves as PI on the Telehealth-Clinical Advocacy Project (T-CAP) funded by NIDA. The two-year project is a feasibility study testing a multidisciplinary telehealth intervention integrated within a state-supported police opioid diversion program. Additional roles include Investigator on the Juvenile Justice Translational Research on Interventions for Adolescents in the Legal System (JJ-TRIALS) and as the Coordinator for qualitative research and staff training across IBR projects. Additionally, she is the faculty sponsor for the IBR Undergraduate Student Lab—Student Overview of Applied Research (SOAR).
Selected Advisory and Service Activities
Journal Reviewer: Health and Justice; Journal of Interpersonal Violence; Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment; Journal of Offender Rehabilitation; Journal of Behavioral Health Services & Research; Substance Abuse Treatment, Prevention, and Policy; Journal of Drug Education: Substance Abuse Research and Prevention
Grants Application Reviewer: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
Selected Publications
Sease, T.B., Joe, G., Pankow, J., Lehman, W.E.K., & Knight, K. (2022). A psychometric reevaluation of the TCU criminal thinking scales (CTS), Journal of Offender Rehabilitation, 61:3, 135-147, DOI: 10.1080/10509674.2022.2045528
Springer, S.A., Nijhawan, A.E., Knight, K., Kuo, I., Di Paola, A., Schlossberg, E., Frank, C.A., Sanchez, M., Pankow, J., Proffitt, R.P., Lehman, W., Pulitzer, Z., Thompson, K., Violette, S., Harding, K.K., & ACTION Cooperative Group (2022). Study protocol of a randomized controlled trial comparing two linkage models for HIV prevention and treatment in justice-involved persons. BMC Infect Dis 22, 380, https://doi.org/10.1186/s12879-022-07354-x
Lehman, W. E. K., Pankow, J., Muiruri, R., Joe, G. W., & Knight, K. (2021). An Evaluation of StaySafe, a tablet app to improve health risk decision making among people under community supervision. Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment. 130, 108480.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0740547221002063
Muiruri, R., Pankow, J., Bonnette, B., Goldberg, G., Knight, K., & Lehman, W. E. K. (2021). Methodological Considerations for Conducting Research in Correctional Settings: A Field Perspective. IBR Technical Report.
Robertson, A. A., Fang, Z., Weiland, D., Joe, G., Gardner, S., Dembo, R., McReynolds, L., Dickson, M., Pankow, J., Dennis, M., & Elkington, K. (2020). Recidivism Among Justice-Involved Youth: Findings From JJ-TRIALS. Criminal Justice and Behavior, https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0093854820922891
Lehman, W. E. K., Rowan, G. A., Pankow, J., Joe, G. W., & Knight, K. (2019). Gender Differences in a Disease Risk Reduction Intervention for People in Prison-based Substance Abuse Treatment. Federal Probation Journal, 83(2), 27-33. abstract
Pankow, J., Lehman, W. E. K., Muiruri, R., & Knight, K. (2019, September). Facilitating self-exploration and behavioral change associated with HIV risk reduction: A qualitative study of individuals on probation and their experiences using a decision-making app. Federal Probation Journal, 83(2). abstract
Pankow, J., Willett, J., Yang, Y., Swan, H., Dembo, R., Burdon, W.M., Patterson, Y., Pearson, F.S., Belenko, S., & Frisman, L.K. (2018;2017). Evaluating fidelity to a modified NIATx process improvement strategy for improving HIV services in correctional facilities. The Journal of Behavioral Health Services & Research, 45(2), 187-203. doi: 10.1007/s11414-017-9551-1. PubMed PMID: 28439790; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC5654706.
Lehman, W.E.K., Pankow, J., Rowan, G.A., Gray, J., Blue, T.R., Muiruri, R., & Knight, K. (2018). StaySafe: A self-administered android tablet application for helping individuals on probation make better decisions pertaining to health risk behaviors. Contemporary Clinical Trials Communications, 10:86-93. doi:10.1016/j.conctc.2018.03.010. abstract
Yang, Y., Pankow, J., Swan, H., Willett, J., Mitchell, S. G., Rudes, D. S., & Knight, K. (2018). Preparing for analysis: A practical guide for a critical step for procedural rigor in large-scale multisite qualitative research studies. Quality & Quantity. 52(2), 815-828.
Belenko, S., Dembo, R., Copenhaver, M., Hiller, M., Swan, H., Albizu-Garcia, C., O’Connell, D., Oser, C., Pearson, F., & Pankow, J. (2016). HIV stigma in prisons and jails: Results from a staff survey. AIDS and Behavior, 20(1), 71-84. PMCID: PMC4669236 [Available on 2017-01-01] abstract
Welsh, W. N., Knudsen, H. K., Knight, K., Ducharme, L., Pankow, J., Urbine, T., Lindsey, A., Abdel-Salam, S., Wood, J., Monico, L., Link, N., Albizu-Garcia, C., & Friedmann, P. D. (2016). Effects of an organizational linkage intervention on inter-organizational service coordination between probation/parole agencies and community treatment providers. Administration and Policy in Mental Health and Mental Health Services Research, 43(1), 105-121. PMCID: PMC4492902 [Available on 2017-01-01] abstract
Friedmann, P. D., Wilson, D., Knudsen, H. K., Ducharme, L. J., Welsh, W. N., Frisman, L., Knight, K., Lin, H. J., James, A., Albizu-Garcia, C. E., Pankow, J., Hall, E. A., Urbine, T. F., Abdel-Salam, S., Duvall, J. L., & Vocci, F. J. (2015). Effect of an organizational linkage intervention on staff perceptions of medication-assisted treatment and referral intentions in community corrections. Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment, 50, 50-58. PMCID: PMC4304936 abstract
Gray, J. S., Pankow, J., Lehman, W. E. K., Rowan, G. A., & Knight, K. (2015). “There’s an app for that” — A novel tool to help community correction populations learn strategies to decrease HIV. Addiction Science & Clinical Practice, 10(Suppl 1), A15. abstract
Lehman, W. E., Pankow, J., Knight, K., Rowan, G. A., & Gray, J. S. (2015). Staying safe in the community: Adaptation of WaySafe to help probationers make better decisions about their health risks. Addiction Science & Clinical Practice, 10(Suppl 1), A32. abstract
Pankow, J., Yang, Y., Knight, K., & Lehman, W. E. K. (2015). Optimizing continuity-of-care opportunities to reduce health risks: Shared qualitative perspectives from CJDATS 2 research. Addiction Science & Clinical Practice, 10(Suppl 1), A46. abstractv
Rowan, G. A., Lehman, W. E. K., Joe, G. W., Knight, K., & Yang, Y. (2015). WaySafe: Improving decision making around health risk behaviors for prisoners transitioning back to the community. Addiction Science & Clinical Practice, 10(Suppl 1), A55. abstract
Visher, C., Yang, Y., Mitchell, S. G., Patterson, Y., Swan, H., & Pankow, J. (2015). Understanding the sustainability of implementing HIV services in criminal justice settings. Health & Justice, 3(1), 5. PMCID: PMC4399763 abstract
Pearson, F. S., Shafer, M. S., Dembo, R., del Mar Vega-Debién, G., Pankow, J., Duvall, J. L., Belenko, S., Frisman, L. K., Visher, C. A., Pich, M., & Patterson, Y. (2014). Efficacy of a process improvement intervention on delivery of HIV services to offenders: A multi-site trial. American Journal of Public Health, 104(12), 2385-2391. PMCID: PMC4232133 abstract
Visher, C. A., Hiller, M., Belenko, S., Pankow, J., Dembo, R., Frisman, L. K., Pearson, F. S., Swan, H., & Wiley, T. R. A. (2014). The effect of a Local Change Team intervention on staff attitudes towards HIV service delivery in correctional settings: A randomized trial. AIDS Education and Prevention, 26(5), 411-428. PMCID: PMC4397895 abstract
Belenko, S., Hiller, M., Visher, C., Copenhaver, M., O’Connell, D., Burdon, W., Pankow, J., Clark, J., & Oser, C. (2013). Policies and practices in the delivery of HIV Services in correctional agencies and facilities: Results from a multi-site survey. Journal of Correctional Health Care, 19(4), 293-310. PMCID: PMC3801270 abstract
Belenko, S., Visher, C., Copenhaver, M., Hiller, M., Melnick, G., O’Connell, D., Pearson, F., Fletcher, B., & the HIV-STIC Workgroup of CJDATS. (2013). A cluster randomized trial of utilizing a local change team approach to improve the delivery of HIV services in correctional settings: Study protocol (J. Pankow is member of workgroup contributing to publication). Health & Justice, 1(8). doi:10.1186/2194-7899-1-8 PMCID: PMC4270366 abstract
Friedmann, P. D., Ducharme, L. J., Welsh, W., Frisman, L., Knight, K., Kinlock, T., Mitchell, S. G., Hall, E., Urbine, T., Gordon, M., Abdel-Salam, S., O’Connell, D., Albizu-Garcia, C., Knudsen, H., Duvall, J., Fenster, J., Pankow, J., & for the CJ-DATS MATICCE Workgroup. (2013). A cluster randomized trial of an organizational linkage intervention for offenders with substance use disorders: Study protocol. Health & Justice, 1(6). doi:10.1186/2194-7899-1-6 PMCID: PMC4193542 abstract
Pankow, J. (2012). Modeling asociality and examining engagement in adult offenders in substance abuse treatment. Offender Substance Abuse Report 15(6), 81-96.
Pankow, J., & Knight, K. (2012). Asociality and engagement in adult offenders in substance abuse treatment. Behavioral Sciences and the Law, 30(4), 371-383. [abstract]
Pankow, J., Simpson, D. D., Joe, G. W., Rowan-Szal, G. A., Knight, K., & Meason, P. (2012). Examining concurrent validity and predictive utility for the Addiction Severity Index and Texas Christian University (TCU) short forms. Journal of Offender Rehabilitation, 51(1-2), 78-95. PMCID: PMC3474351 [abstract]
Rowan-Szal, G. A., Joe, G. W., Bartholomew, N. G., Pankow, J., & Simpson, D. D. (2012). Brief trauma and mental health assessments for female offenders in addiction treatment. Journal of Offender Rehabilitation, 51(1-2), 57-77. PMCID: PMC3474366 [abstract]
Pankow, J., Knight, K., Pickett, S., & Barberena, R. (2009). Tarrant County Felony Alcohol Intervention Project (FAIP) evaluation. Offender Substance Abuse Report 13(2), July/August, 17-18, 27-29.