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Faculty

Full-time MJA Faculty

Dr. Darl H. Champion

Professor of Justice Studies

Director, Master of Justice Administration Program

and

Center for Excellence in Justice Administration
B.A., Indiana University of Pennsylvania
M.C.J., University of South Carolina
Ed.D., North Carolina State University.
Office: T-304; Phone: (910) 630-7050; E-Mail:

Dr. Champion is a tenured professor within the School of Public Affairs. Dr. Champion earned his master's degree in criminal justice from the University of South Carolina and a doctorate in adult education with a minor in public administration from North Carolina State University. At the undergraduate level he has taught courses in policing urban society, juvenile delinquency, criminal justice planning, terrorism and homeland security, organizational behavior in criminal justice organizations, police administration, interpersonal communications for criminal justice personnel, ethical foundations of criminal justice, and criminology. At Webster University he has taught graduate courses in administration of justice, police and society, security management and administration, and behavioral issues. In 1997 he was named the Outstanding Instructor at Fayetteville Technical Community College; in 1988 he was named the Margaret Lange Willis Outstanding Educator in North Carolina. In 2004 he was named Professor of the Year at Methodist University. He has presented numerous papers at professional conferences, and in 2002 co-authored a textbook entitled An Introduction to American Policing. He has been a peer reviewer for the journal Crime and Delinquency. Dr. Champion has been a long-term member of the Academy of Criminal Justice Science, the American Society of Criminology, American Society of Public Administration, and the American Society of Industrial Security. He served ten years as a member of the North Carolina Criminal Justice Education and Training Standards Commission and is currently a member of the governing board of the Carolina's Institute for Community Policing. In the local community he serves on the Public Safety Committee of Fayetteville MetroVisions.

Dr. Mark D. Bowman

Assistant Professor of Justice Studies

B.S., University of Arkansas at Little Rock

M.P.S.L., Christopher Newport University

Ph.D., Old Dominion University

Office: T-217; Phone: (910) 630-7434; E-Mail:

Dr. Bowman retired as a Lieutenant from the Virginia Beach, Virginia Police Department on September 1, 2009. His last assignment was with the Department's Operations Division in the 2nd Precinct as a Patrol Lieutenant. In that assignment he was responsible for leading night operations in the Oceanfront Community Oriented Policing area.

He previously served as a Sergeant in Professional Development & Training as the Department's leadership development coordinator. He has served as the lead faculty member and coordinator for the Department's West Point Leadership Course since its inception in 2003. In his capacity as the Department's leadership development coordinator he has attended faculty development with the Department of Behavioral Sciences and Leadership at the U. S. Military Academy, West Point, New York. As the West Point Leadership Course Coordinator he also managed the Department's multi-rater (360-degree) feedback program and served as a member of the Department's leadership coaching cadre. He was also been responsible for developing leadership and followership training for the Department's Basic Recruit Academy, the Field Training Officer's Course, the Sergeant's Preparatory Course, and the Field Training Sergeant's Course.

Mark also served as a Patrol Sergeant, a Detective Sergeant, a Master Police Officer, a Drug Recognition Expert on the Department's DUI Task Force, and as a SWAT Officer.

Mark received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Criminal Justice from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and a Masters in Public Safety Leadership from Christopher Newport University, Newport News, Virginia. He was awarded a Ph.D. in Public Administration and Urban Policy, with a cognate in Industrial and Organizational Psychology at Old Dominion University, Norfolk, Virginia in August 2009.

Mark served 26 years on active and reserve duty; both enlisted and commissioned, and retired as a Major from the U. S. Army Reserve. He served over 18 years as a Special Forces Officer, twice commanding a Special Forces A Detachment. He has completed a variety of professional education courses at the U. S. Army Infantry School, JFK Special Warfare Center and School, and the U. S. Army Command and General Staff College.

Mark is an amateur triathlete and has completed two Ironman, three Half Ironman, and over 60 Olympic and Sprint distance triathlons.

Mark and his wife Brenda have three children and four grandchildren.

Dr. Katherine M. Brown

Assistant Professor of Justice Studies
B.A., University of Texas at Austin
M.A., Ph.D., Sam Houston State University
Office: H-110; Phone: (910) 480-8458; E-Mail:

Dr. Brown is an assistant professor of Justice Studies at Methodist University where she teaches at both the graduate and undergraduate level. Typical courses include topics related to homicide investigation, research methods, and statistics. She received her Bachelor of Arts in Government with a minor in Sociology from the University of Texas at Austin in 1993, and received both her Master of Arts in Criminal Justice and Criminology in 2005, and her Doctorate of Philosophy in Criminal Justice in 2008 from Sam Houston State University. Dr. Brown’s research interests include: child abduction murder investigation, crime scene investigation, serial murder, crime scene assessment, forensic evidence and other solvability factors affecting murder investigations. Her most recent publications have been featured in several books, and the Journal of Forensic Sciences. Dr. Brown is a member of the Vidocq Society, Homicide Research Working Group, American Academy of Forensic Sciences, and the North Carolina Homicide Investigator’s Association and serves as a consultant to Child Abduction Response Teams (CARTs) across the United States.

Dr. Michael Potts
Professor of Philosophy
B.A., David Lipscomb College
M.Th., Harding University Graduate School of Religion
M.A., Vanderbilt University
Ph.D., University of Georgia
Office: T-232; Phone: (910) 630-7072; E-Mail:

Dr. Potts holds the M.Th. in theology from Harding University Graduate School of Religion, the M.A. in religion from Vanderbilt University, and the Ph.D. in philosophy from The University of Georgia. He has taught undergraduate courses in philosophy and religion, including Introduction to Philosophy, Introduction to Religion, Introduction to Biblical Studies, Logic, Ethics, Business Ethics, Medical Ethics, and Ethical Foundations of Criminal Justice. He has also taught a graduate course in medical ethics to students in the Methodist University Physician Assistant Program. He edited (with Paul A. Byrne and Richard G. Nilges) a book, Beyond Brain Death: The Case Against Brain Based Criteria for Human Death (Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2000). He has ten articles in refereed scholarly journals, including Academic Questions, American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly, Faith and Philosophy, International Journal for Philosophy of Religion, Journal of Medical Ethics, The Journal of Medicine and Philosophy, Journal of Near-Death Studies, Perspectives in Biology and Medicine and The Thomist. His letters have been published in the British Medical Journal, the Canadian Medical Association Journal, and the New England Journal of Medicine. He also has written several book chapters for anthologies and six articles for the forthcoming Encyclopedia of Business Ethics and Society. He has made over twenty-five presentations at scholarly conferences, including a paper at the “Signs of Death” conference in February 2005 at The Vatican City. In addition, his poetry has been published in such magazines as the Journal of the American Medical Association and Poems & Plays. His poetry chapbook, From Field to Thicket, won the Mary Belle Campbell Poetry Book Award of the North Carolina Writers' Network, and his essay, "Haunted," won the Rose Post Creative Nonfiction Award from the same organization. He was recently elected to the Board of the North Carolina Poetry Society.

Dr. Eric See
Associate Professor of Justice Studies
Department Chair, Department of Justice Studies

Assistant Professor of Justice Studies

B.S., Bowling Green State University

M.S., University of Cincinnati

Ph.D., Indiana University of Pennsylvania.

Office: T-303; Phone: (910) 630-7459; E-Mail:

Adjunct MJA Faculty

Joe Binns
Sergeant
Garner Police Department
B.A., North Carolina State University
M.J.A., Methodist University
Phone: (919) 802-3061 (cell)
E-Mail:

Sergeant Binns is a 18 year veteran with the Town of Garner Police Department. He is currently a patrol supervisor, responsible for a team of seven (7) officers in a town of 27,000 residents. His last assignment was as the department's training and public information officer. In that position, he completed hundreds of press releases and on-camera interviews with both local and national media outlets. He has also served as a juvenile investigator, D.A.R.E. Officer, and a member of the department’s Special Response Team.

In addition to his regular supervisory duties, Sgt. Binns is certified with the North Carolina Training and Standards Division to teach both firearms and physical fitness training. He is an adjunct instructor with both Wake Technical Community College and ITT Technical Institute, teaching in the criminal justice curriculums at those institutions.

Joe received his Bachelor of Arts in Political Science in 1992 from North Carolina State University in Raleigh, NC and his Master's of Justice Administration from Methodist University in 2010.
Joe and his wife, Amy, have two daughters.

Joseph Dugdale

Chief Counsel

North Carolina State Highway Patrol

Dr. J. Thomas Edwards
Director of Public Safety and Homeland Security Training
Wake Technical Community College
Raleigh, NC

Dr. J. Thomas Edwards is currently the Director of Public Safety and Homeland Security Training for Wake Technical Community College. Previously, Dr. Edwards has held positions as an Instructor/Coordinator with the North Carolina Justice Academy, BLET School Director and Criminal Justice Curriculum Instructor at Southeastern Community College, and BLET School Director for the Coastal Plain Police Academy. His law enforcement career began 1977 with the Wilson Police Department. Other law enforcement positions have been with the Wilson County Sheriff's Office as the SRT Team Leader, an Agent with the Alcohol Law Enforcement Division of North Carolina Department of Crime Control and Public Safety, and a Military Police Officer in the United States Army Reserves.

Dr. Edwards has a Doctor of Education, Training and Development from North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC; a Master of Science in Administration from Central Michigan University, Mt. Pleasant, MI; and a Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice from North Carolina Wesleyan College, Rocky Mt., NC. Dr. Edwards has participated in the Oxford Round Table for Criminal Justice and Law at Oxford University, England.

Dr. Edwards has been awarded the T. Elbert Clemmons Faculty Award from Southeastern Community College, the Outstanding BLET Instructor from the Coastal Plains Law Enforcement Academy and graduated with honors in Criminal Justice from North Carolina Wesleyan College.

Benson C. Hoyle
Chief of Police
Cornelius Police Department
M.J.A., Methodist University

Benson C. Hoyle is the Chief of Police in Cornelius, North Carolina, a community of 25,000 residents located in Mecklenburg County, the largest metropolitan area in the State. Chief Hoyle manages a staff of 72 personnel comprising three major functions including police, a multi-agency 911 Center, and a municipal state-of-the-art animal shelter facility. Chief Hoyle also oversees the town's IT Department. Cornelius PD was the first agency in Mecklenburg County to become accredited by the CALEA, an international accreditation agency. Cornelius received a Flagship designation in 2010 after a 100% compliance report during their reassessment for accreditation.

Chief Hoyle has over 25 years in law enforcement. He began his law enforcement career as a uniformed patrol officer and served in various specialties including K-9, Investigations, and as a member of a high-risk narcotics entry team. Chief Hoyle rose quickly through the ranks and was appointed as Chief of Police in 1990, where at the age of 26, was the youngest Chief in the State at the time. Chief Hoyle is also a certified computer forensic examiner, and has taught advanced computer forensic techniques nationwide to Federal, State, local and international law enforcement agencies. He also served as a consultant performing vulnerability assessments on secure network systems at government installations in the Unites States. Chief Hoyle has also taught as a criminal justice instructor in the North Carolina community college system.

Chief Hoyle earned a Master of Justice Administration degree from Methodist University and is a graduate of the Southern Police Institute, the North Carolina Justice Academy’s Management Development Program, and the Police Executive Development Program at UNC-Chapel Hill. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of the North Carolina Association of Chiefs of Police and previously served five years on the Criminal Justice Education Training and Standards In-Service Training sub-committee. Chief Hoyle also teaches in undergraduate programs in the community college system and seminar programs including strategic planning and budget development for law enforcement managers.

Thomas McNally
FBI Agent (Retired)
Adjunct Instructor
Department of Justice Studies
Methodist University
Fayetteville, NC

Thomas B. McNally is an adjunct instructor in the School of Public Affairs where he has been a member of the teaching faculty since 1995. Mr. McNally earned a LL.B from St. John's University in 1963 and was admitted to the New York bar the same year.

Mr. McNally has taught the following courses in the undergraduate program: Courts and the Judicial Process, Criminal Law, Police and the Law, and Criminal Evidence and Procedure. At the graduate level he has taught Legal Issues in Justice Administration.

Prior to coming to Methodist University he was a Special Agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation for twenty eight years. During that time, he was an Assistant Legal Advisor for the FBI in North Carolina and also a legal instructor, lecturing to federal, state and local law enforcement agencies. He has lectured at the Police Academy in Belfast, Northern Ireland and continues to work as a contract employee for the FBI.

David Allen Wulff
Major (retired)
Cary Police Department
B.A.S., Campbell University
M.J.A., Methodist University
Phone: (919) 368-4031
Email:

Dave retired as a Major from the Cary Police Department, Cary, North Carolina on November 1, 2011. Dave retired with over 32 years of police service. When he retired he was the Services Bureau Commander where he oversaw the Criminal Investigations Division, Emergency Communications Center, Traffic Safety Team, I.M.P.A.C.T. Team, Records, Accreditation, and Animal Control.

Dave previously served as the Criminal Investigations Division Commander, Field Operations Division Commander, Crisis Negotiations Team Commander, Training Director, Watch Commander, Community Services Officer, Firearms Instructor, D.A.R.E. Officer, and Patrol Officer. While working in these roles Dave had the opportunity to develop the position of Community Services Officer and Training Director. He also developed the Cary Police Department Citizen Police Academy, and coordinated the Construction of the Cary Police Department Firearms Training Center.

Dave received his Associates in Applied Sciences Degree from Wake Technical Community College, his Bachelor of Applied Sciences Degree from Campbell University, and his Master in Justice Administration from Methodist University.

Outside of work Dave is very active at his church, St. Michael's the Archangel Catholic Church in Cary, NC. Dave is Chair of the Pastoral Council, Chair of the Safe Environment Team, Safe Environment Instructor, a Eucharistic Minister, a Knight in the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem, and a 4th Degree Knight of Columbus.
When not working or volunteering Dave and his wife Linda enjoy traveling, fly fishing, scuba diving, and riding his Harley.