Nathan E. Kruis

Nathan E. Kruis, Ph.D., is an assistant professor of criminal justice at Penn State Altoona with a specialization in drug policy and substance use addiction. Born and raised in Central Pennsylvania, Kruis received his bachelor’s degree from Penn State Altoona and earned his master’s and Ph.D. from Indiana University of Pennsylvania.

Dr. Kruis currently serves as Director-at-Large for the Northeastern Association of Criminal Justice Sciences (NEACJS), as President for the Pennsylvania Association of Criminal Justice Educators (PACJE), and is a member of the Blair County Chapter of the Pennsylvania Prison Society (PPS). He is also a Research Associate for the Douglas W. Pollock Center for Addiction Outreach and Research at Penn State Harrisburg and advisor for both Penn State Altoona’s Criminal Justice Organization (CJO) and Penn State Altoona’s criminal justice honor society, Alpha Phi Sigma (APS), as well as co-director of the Integrated Social Science Research Lab (ISSRL) at Penn State Altoona.

Dr. Kruis has authored and co-authored more than forty peer-reviewed publications in prestigious journals, including Crime & Delinquency, Policing: A Journal of Policy and Practice, Journal of Criminal Justice, Policing & Society, Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment, Police Quarterly, Journal of Drug Issues, and Substance Use and Misuse. He has been awarded the Michael Braswell/Routledge Outstanding Student Dissertation Award (2020) from the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences (ACJS), the Roslyn Muraskin Emerging Scholar Award (2021) from the Northeastern Association of Criminal Justice Sciences (NEACJS), and the CJPR-NEACJS Policy Paper Award (2021) from the Northeastern Association of Criminal Justice Sciences (NEACJS) for the best policy paper written in 2021. Recently, he was also awarded the Excellence in Classroom Teaching Award (2023), Excellence in Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities Mentoring Award (2023), and Student Organization Advisor of the Year Award (2024) at Penn State Altoona.