Meet the Crime Waves Team
Host: Declan Hill
Declan Hill is an associate professor of investigations at the University of New Haven. He specializes in the study of organized crime and corruption specifically in international sports. He began his interest in this field when researching the links between the Russian mafiya and the stars of the National Hockey League (NHL). He received his doctorate from the University of Oxford in corruption and organized crime studies. As part of his research, he infiltrated a match-fixing gang that traveled the world fixing major sporting events including ATP tennis and FIFA World Cup games. His book ‘The Fix: Organized crime and soccer’ is about this work and has become a best-seller in twenty-one languages and is optioned in Hollywood as a major television series. His academic work includes peer-reviewed publications and a book adaptation of his Ph.D. thesis ‘The Insider’s Guide to Match-Fixing in Football’. It has been published in Japanese, Lithuanian, and English. Hill has spoken before the Council of Europe and Parliamentary Committees in Brussels and London. In December 2018, he testified before the U.S. Congressional Helsinki Committee about organized crime, corruption, and the changes in U.S. sports gambling laws.
Before his work in sports corruption, Hill was an investigative journalist and news presenter for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). He did stories on the murder of the Head of the Canadian mafia, Honour Killings in Kurdistan, Blood Feuds in Kosovo, the killings of Filipino journalists, the links between the Russian Mafiya and top-level sports people, and the Underground Railway to protect Iraqi women. His work has also appeared in other media outlets including, PBS Frontline, BBC, The Sunday Telegraph, Der Spiegel, The Times (London), and New York Times. He has won numerous awards for his work, including Amnesty International’s Best Human Rights Documentary (Canada), Play the Game (Denmark), and the Canadian Association of Journalists. Hill speaks fluent English, French, Spanish, and Italian and is a keen amateur boxer who trains in Havana, Cuba.
Executive Producer: Ryan Decker
Ryan Decker is a Master’s Student at the University of New Haven studying National Security with a concentration in Information Protection and Security. Ryan intensively studied the Mafia and Organized Crime in Prato, Italy with a focus on the Camorra of Naples. Ryan is one of the founding members and past Executive Assistant of the TEDx University of New Haven Club and put on the first-ever TEDx talk here at the University. He has a passion for investigations and is pursing a career in Cyber Security.
Producer: Caitlin DeLuke
Caitlin DeLuke is a senior at the University of New Haven studying Forensic Science with a concentration and a minor in Biology. With an on-campus job as a Charger Ambassador, Caitlin loves meeting new people and educating them while learning about their own individual interests. After studying abroad at their campus in Prato, Italy, Caitlin has a strong desire to travel more and learn more about Criminal Justice systems and Forensic Science protocols in other countries. After completing her Bachelor of Science degree, Caitlin hopes to pursue a graduate-level education within the realm of Forensic Science or Criminal Justice Investigative Services.
Producer: Isabella Idarraga
Isabella Idarraga is a sophomore student at the University of New Haven. Her major is Communications with a concentration in Public Relations. Her work for the Ulta Beauty company allowed her to build sales and merchandising expertise. In the future, she hopes to graduate with a Master's in Communication and would be open to dipping her toes into entertainment, business, politics, and marketing.
Producer: Aiden van Batenburg
Aiden van Batenburg is a forensic science student at the University of New Haven with a concentration in chemistry. He is a rugby player and has been a teacher's aide at the University’s engineering and science magnet school. An executive of the local branch of Sigma Chi. Van Batenburg has a passion to be in the field helping to bust clandestine labs and ending the drug crisis in America, but outside of that he actively pursues other dreams of publishing a line of fiction novels.
Producer: Brikitta Hairston
Brikitta Hairston is a second-year MS Criminal Justice Student. Her career path is geared toward investigative profiling--even though 'profiling,' as her friend in the FBI BSU says, is not a real thing…anyhow, she aims to pioneer changes in the criminal justice system by researching the trajectory of juvenile crime. The goal is to create permanent deterrence through psychological interventions rather than punitive ones at the onset of crime. After graduation, she hopes to work in Title IX Investigations and receive her Ph.D., researching the origin of the predator. As a former autopsy assistant and future investigative victimologist, she knows all about shaking things up and getting to the root of the crime.
Producer: Alexia Miller
Alexia Miller is a criminal investigations graduate student at the University of New Haven, additionally pursuing a certificate in Trafficking of Persons. She recently graduated from Syracuse University with a dual major in Forensic Science and Sociology. Alexia has a passion for criminal investigations and intends to pursue a career as an investigator. Outside of investigations, she has the ambition to build her own travel van to explore in during her spare time.