Dr. Michelle N. Jeanis is an Assistant Professor in the Criminal Justice Department at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. Michelle graduated with a B.S. and M.S. in Psychology from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and completed her Ph.D. in Criminology at USF in 2017.

While at USF, Dr. Jeanis played an integral role in initially developing the SPRUCE (Social and Psychological Research to Understand Crime Etiology) Lab in the fall of 2016. She was highly active in undertaking all of the logistics that go into running the SPRUCE Lab, which handles multiple research projects at once, has 25 undergraduate student members, and receives 20 new applications each semester.

Her research interests include missing persons, runaway youth, and the representation of crime in the media. Recent research projects include collaborations with both local and national non-profit and law enforcement agencies to examine the relationship between social networking sites and criminal justice/crime control.

Dr. Jeanis teaches a variety of undergraduate courses, some of which include: media and crime, serial homicide, and theories of criminal behavior. Dr. Jeanis also teaches graduate-level courses on topics such as juvenile justice and research methods.