Anne Douds

Co-Chair Public Health Policy

Health Sciences

Contact

Email

adouds@gettysburg.edu

Phone

(717) 337 - 6778

Box

Campus Box 0404

Address

Weidensall Hall
Room 102
300 North Washington St.
Gettysburg, PA 17325-1400

Academic Focus

Criminal Justice Policy, Legal Policy, Health Policy, Qualitative Research, Program Evaluation, and Law

Anne S. Douds, JD, PhD is Chair and Associate Professor of Public Policy and Co-Chair of Public Health Policy at Gettysburg College. She earned her BA in political science from Duke University, her JD from Emory University School of Law, and her PhD from George Mason University. She is a retired trial attorney with 20 years of litigation experience. Her research and consulting work focus on program evaluations in justice systems and legal aid organizations, criminal justice policy, social and legal health, specialized courts, victims’ rights, veterans issues, and systems analysis.

Dr. Douds’ books include Criminal Justice Reform: From Arrest to Bail Decisions (2024), Taking Problem Solving Courts to Scale: Diverse Applications of the Specialty Court Model (2021), The Veterans Treatment Court Movement: Striving to Serve Those Who Served (2018), and Rethinking American Correctional Policies: Commonsense Choices from Uncommon Voices (2017). Her research has been published in journals such as Annals of Health Law and Life Sciences, Criminal Justice Policy Review, Criminal Justice Review,the International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology,the Journal of Correctional Health Care,the Journal of Qualitative Criminal Justice & Criminology,and Victims & Offenders.

Dr. Doudshas received multiple teaching and mentoring awards, including the Dr. Ralph Cavaliere Endowed Teaching Award. She is the faculty mentor for the Public Policy Department's and the Public Health Policy’s internship programs. She serves on the Eisenhower Institute Campus Advisory Committee, runs co-curricular programs for the Eisenhower Institute, and coordinates community-engaged learning experiences for students with the Center for Public Service.

Courses Taught

Throughout your life, you have sought opportunities to be a difference maker, to be an agent for change in your school, your family, your community, and the world. This course celebrates your desire to help solve social problems and provides the next step in your change making and policy education. In this course, you will learn how to become policy change agents and how to advocate for social reform. The course incorporates traditional forms of academic scholarship on agency, advocacy, and reform with up-to-the-minute literature in students’ specific areas of policy interest. Throughout the semester, we will take field trips related to policymaking and community change; meet with local policymakers; craft individual policy reform proposals; and learn from peers in a highly engaged, interactive, collegial environment. You should leave this course feeling empowered and equipped to seek and effect social change.
This course examines Supreme Court rulings on sex and sexual conduct in the United States. Each week, students study Supreme Court cases and related literature on a different topic concerning sexual behavior, sexual misbehavior, sexual orientation, and sexual expression. The class considers the historical context in which the issues developed, modern laws on the issues, and policies that may emerge with respect to each of the issues. Students visit courts, interact with policymakers who work in sex-related fields, and interview people who have been impacted by Supreme Court decisions on sex-related matters.
This foundational course for the Public Policy and Public Health Policy majors covers all major areas of public policy studies and provides in-depth analysis of policy making processes and outcome evaluation. The class begins with problem definition, examining how communities and societies define, prioritize, and respond to complex, “wicked” social problems. The course examines the policy process, historical antecedents to the discipline, foundational policy theory, and several models for analyzing policy. The course then proceeds through a series of policy arenas, allowing for topic-specific consideration of key aspects of policy analysis. This course lays the foundation for all subsequent study of public policy and public health policy, and it is a prerequisite to all upper-level Public Policy classes and the required internship. PHP 221 and PP 221 are cross-listed.
Interactive course combining study of fundamental texts with student-led research projects. Students learn how public policy problems are defined and policy responses are developed, evaluated, and implemented. Students work intensively with the professor to apply these principles to an issue that interests them. The final output is a comprehensive white paper on the issue and recommended policy response. Prerequisite: PP 221 PHP 305 and PP 305 are cross-listed.