With a Ph.D. in Criminal Justice from the University of Cincinnati, Dr. Lisa Growette Bostaph came to Boise State University in 2003 to teach in the Department of Criminal Justice where her major teaching interests are in research methods, policing, women and the criminal justice system, and victimology. In addition to teaching and mentoring students, her research emphasis has been on race and policing, domestic violence and criminal justice system response, and the public perception of the criminal justice system.
Dr. Bostaph's work and knowledge benefit the community. Under a federal grant, she helped implement the Idaho Victim Assistance Academy. The academy involves 40 hours of intensive academic work for professionals who interact with victims, including police officers, nurses, counselors and others. She serves as an advisor to Start Strong Idaho, and on the Southwest Idaho Building Healthy Relationships Executive Board which oversees the implementation of a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation grant addressing teen dating violence. She also serves as a reviewer for professional journals (including the Journal of Criminal Justice Education, and the Journal of Ethnicity and Criminal Justice), as Secretary/Treasurer for the Western Association of Criminal Justice, and finds time to write a column, 'Ask a Tenured Professor', for the American Society of Criminology Division on Women & Crime quarterly newsletter. Dr. Bostaph was named to the five-member Idaho Commission of Pardons and Parole by Idaho Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter in 2012 and was re-confirmed for another term in 2015.