Dr. Michael Birzer built his first career in law enforcement, rising through the ranks of the Sedgwick County Sheriff's Department while quietly discovering a deeper passion for research and education. That unexpected interest helped him launch a second career shaped by a relentless drive to understand and improve the relationship between law enforcement and the communities they serve.
“I realized I loved college, and when I started getting involved in research, everything just clicked," said Birzer, a professor in Wichita State’s Cohen Honors College and the School of Criminal Justice.
That realization led him to pursue a doctoral degree in Oklahoma while working full-time in law enforcement, commuting several times a week to complete his studies. Eventually, Birzer made the leap into higher education, joining Wichita State University in 2004.
Since then, his research, which has been focused largely on racial profiling and evidence-based policing strategies, has made a significant impact across the region. His groundbreaking work, initially funded by the Kansas Department of Transportation, involved traveling the state to gather firsthand accounts from people of color who believed they had been racially profiled.
"Many of them had been," Birzer said. "The goal wasn’t just to gather stories but to use that data to inform law enforcement training and practices."
Birzer’s work led to new training courses at the Kansas Law Enforcement Training Center, a book published by CRC Press and countless workshops and speaking engagements, including conversations and interviews on National Public Radio and Wichita Public Radio. His credibility as a former officer helped him bridge the often-wide gap between law enforcement and the communities they serve.
"They had never heard training presented this way before," Birzer says. "It wasn't just statutes and legal definitions. It was real experiences and real perspectives."
Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity Hub (UReCA)
Today, Birzer is expanding his impact through undergraduate research. As director of Wichita State’s Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity Hub (UReCA), which is supported by the Cohen Honors College and housed in Ablah Library, he is helping build a stronger culture of research among undergraduates across disciplines.
“We're giving students a way to stay connected to the university through meaningful work,” Birzer says. "They’re building foundational practices in critical thinking and real-world problem solving."
His passion for mentoring is rooted in personal experience. Birzer didn’t discover research until graduate school. Now, he’s working to make sure students have that exposure earlier. Under his leadership, undergraduate students at Wichita State are being paired with faculty mentors, contributing to research teams, and even participating in interdisciplinary studies across fields like criminal justice, psychology, public health and engineering.
The momentum is growing. Faculty surveys show strong interest in working with undergraduates, and Birzer and his team are building an infrastructure to support those collaborations.
"We're creating pathways that help students develop skills they’ll use in their careers, and it might even encourage them to stay at Wichita State for graduate school," he says.
Ongoing research
Birzer is also continuing his own scholarship. His latest project is a forthcoming book about O.W. Wilson, a pioneering police reformer and former Wichita police chief who helped launch the university’s criminal justice program in the 1930s.
"That history is largely forgotten," Birzer says. "I wanted to shine a light on Wichita’s role in shaping modern policing."
For Birzer, whether it's criminal justice reform or undergraduate mentorship, the mission is the same: open doors and foster understanding.
“There’s always more work to be done,” he says. “And the more we can shed light on these issues, the better off our communities, and our students, will be.”
About Wichita State University
Wichita State University is Kansas' only urban public research university, enrolling more than 23,000 students between its main campus and the WSU Campus of Applied Sciences and Technology (WSU Tech), including students from every state in the U.S. and more than 100 countries. Wichita State and WSU Tech are recognized for being student-centered and innovation-driven.
Located in the largest city in the state with one of the highest concentrations in the United States of jobs involving science, technology, engineering and math (STEM), Wichita State University provides uniquely distinctive and innovative pathways of applied learning, applied research and career opportunities for all of our students. The National Science Foundation ranked WSU No. 1 in the nation for aerospace engineering R&D, No. 2 for industry-funded engineering R&D and No. 8 overall for engineering R&D.
The Innovation Campus, which is a physical extension of the Wichita State University main campus, is one of the nation’s largest and fastest-growing research/innovation parks, encompassing over 120 acres and is home to a number of global companies and organizations.
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