Mike Ryan, Lion’s Eye Staff Writer, mpr5198@psu.edu 

Working in the education system for a decade, seven of which have been here at Penn State Brandywine, Professor Colleen Guss has taught many courses about criminal justice. Before Guss was teaching the classroom, she was working in the criminal justice field herself.

After graduating from Indiana University of Pennsylvania in 2001 with a bachelor degree in criminology, she began her career as a claims adjuster for Penn National Insurance headquartered in Harrisburg. While at Penn National, she worked in the workers’ compensation office; her job consisted of conducting interviews and deciding  whether or not a claim would be paid based on medical records.

In 2002 Guss switched jobs and began working as a welfare fraud investigator for the Office of Inspector General for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, where she would conduct interviews and obtain records to determine whether or not welfare fraud was being committed.

After working for the Office of Inspector General for four and a half years, she decided to work at USIS, a security-based information and service solutions to both government and corporate customers. Guss worked as a field investigator, her position consisted of conducting interviews and obtaining records as part of background investigations for federal security clearances. During her time a USIS she worked on several government contracts.

In 2005 Professor Guss got a master degree in administration of justice from Wilmington University. In 2007 Guss began her teaching career at Delaware County Community College as an adjunct instructor, where she still teaches today, teaching three criminal justice courses. In 2010 Professor Guss began teaching here at Penn State Brandywine teaching three courses: introduction to criminal justice, juvenile delinquency, and comparative justice in global perspective.

As you can see Professor Guss has a lot of real world experience in her field, and is able to bring that experience into the classroom to prepare students who decide to go into the criminal justice field after they graduate.