Dean's Office
Since joining the NJCU community in 2016, Dr. Nir has served the university in various roles. While working as a faculty member in the , she founded the and has guided the team as its coach since 2017.
Dr. Nir is actively involved in Community Engaged Learning (CEL) initiatives on campus and partners with members of the Hudson County judiciary to run an interactive CEL Court Program for and Criminal Justice students.
Esther has served on various committees on campus, including the Community Engaged Learning Committee, the CPS Curriculum Committee, the Institutional Review Board (IRB), and the Honors Program Committee, among others. In 2022, she was appointed to the position of Director of the NJCU Honors Program.
Esther received her Juris Doctor from Fordham Law School and her Ph.D. in Criminal Justice from Rutgers University. She served as a prosecutor in Queens County, New York for 13 years, where she prosecuted felony cases from inception to disposition and litigated on the trial and appellate levels.
Dr. Nir’s research interests include sentencing disparities, police misconduct, and community-engaged learning initiatives. She specializes in qualitative research methods and interviews judges, prosecutors, and defense attorneys in connection to her research efforts. Her research can be found in numerous criminal justice, research methodology, and teaching journals.