Dr. Kyra Fritz received her Ph.D. in Criminal Justice from the University of Louisville and M.A. in Clinical Psychology from Spalding University. Police officer wellness and research design, methodology, and ethics are her areas of expertise. She has been trained in quantitative, qualitative, and geospatial analysis programs to examine historical and contemporary issues using various psychological and criminological theories. Dr. Fritz has been an investigator on many applied police studies over the years, where she worked directly with law enforcement personnel to examine sentinel events; workplace challenges, burnout, stress, resilience, and coping behaviors among officers; community policing implementation; and police-youth interactions.
Dr. Fritz has over 10 years of research experience in the academic, non-profit, and local government sectors. She is currently employed with both the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation (PIRE) and Portland Police Bureau, in which she provides research support on many projects. Her work responsibilities include but are not limited to evaluation planning; instrument development; data collection and analysis; literature reviews; preparation of scholarly and technical reports; project management; and proposal development. Dr. Fritz previously worked as a mental health care provider in Kentucky, where she was responsible for leading group therapy sessions; providing individual and family outpatient therapy services; treatment planning; psychodiagnostic testing services; and preparing written reports with treatment recommendations based on assessment findings.
