Rate My Professor Kate McLean

Kate McLean is an Associate Professor of Criminal Justice at Pennsylvania State University Greater Allegheny. She holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from the City University of New York Graduate Center, an M.S. in Public Health from Harvard University, and a B.A. in Biology from Columbia University. Since joining Penn State in 2014, McLean has developed an extensive research agenda exploring the intersection of criminal justice and public health. Her scholarship focuses on illicit drug use, harm reduction strategies like syringe exchange and overdose prevention sites, and the impacts of the war on drugs. She examines how criminal-moral frameworks perpetuate stigma amid expanding evidence-based public health interventions, influencing individual identities, community health, and social institutions.

Key publications by McLean include “There’s nothing here”: Deindustrialization as risk environment for overdose (International Journal of Drug Policy, 2016), The biopolitics of needle exchange in the United States (Critical Public Health, 2011), “They're making it so hard for people to get help:” Motivations for non-prescribed buprenorphine use in a time of treatment expansion (International Journal of Drug Policy, 2019), Exploring first responders' perceptions of medication for addiction treatment: Does stigma influence attitudes? (Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment, 2021), and “You never know what you’re getting”: Opioid users’ perceptions of fentanyl in southwest Pennsylvania (Substance Use & Misuse, 2019). She co-authored the open educational resource Introduction to the U.S. Criminal Justice System. In 2021, McLean received the Penn State Outreach and Online Education Emerging Faculty Award for Engaged Scholarship, honoring her community-engaged research on substance abuse, including overdose prevention services and opioid social networks. She has presented internationally in Glasgow, Scotland, and Paris, France, and led projects as principal investigator and project director for university-wide initiatives. In teaching, she emphasizes hands-on learning through VR experiences, podcasting, student-led research, and community projects like Crime on Campus. McLean is affiliated with the Criminal Justice Research Center and the Consortium on Substance Use and Addiction.