About the Authors
Bryan Vila is a professor emeritus at Washington State University and founder/former director of its Simulated Hazardous Operational Tasks laboratory. His research interests include cross-cultural policing, police fatigue and work hours, and criminology theory. He has published more than 80 articles on these topics as well as four books, including Tired Cops: the Importance of Managing Police Fatigue.
Since receiving his Ph.D. in 1990 from the University of California, Davis, Bryan has also held tenured faculty positions at the University of California, Irvine and the University of Wyoming. Prior to joining WSU in 2005, he directed crime control and prevention research at the U.S. Department of Justice.
Before he became an academic, Bryan served as a law enforcement officer for 17 years — including nine years as a street cop and supervisor with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, six years as a police chief helping the emerging nations of Micronesia develop stable and culturally-appropriate law enforcement agencies, and two years as a federal law enforcement officer in Washington, D.C.
Cynthia Morris has worked as a writer and editor since 1981. She has published 28 books, and written thousands of news and feature articles on topics ranging from camel farming in the desert to wormholes in outer space.
In addition to Micronesian Blues, Cyn's books include The Role of Police in American Society and Capital Punishment in the United States, both co-authored with Bryan Vila and published by Greenwood Press (now Bloomsbury Publishing).
Cyn also has a lifelong addiction to word puzzles — particularly quotation puzzles known as acrostics. Cyn's puzzle series include CynAcrostics (eclectic topics), American Acrostics (American history, culture, and trivia), and AnimaCrostics (animal-themed puzzles for kids). Her puzzles are published by Egghead Games, and are also available on Amazon.
Before becoming an author, Cyn was an award-winning science writer at the University of California, Irvine.
