Sociology Advisory Board

The Sociology Advisory Board was established in 2015 as the primary alumni service organization for the department. Board members serve by invitation of the department chair and provide advice, financial support and opportunities to advance the long-term goals of the department.

MEMBERS

John Michael Brooks Emeritus Professor, Sociology, Anthropology, and Criminal Justice Valdosta State University (PhD, sociology, 1970)

Pamela Conrad Retired Director, State Government Sales IBM Watson Health (BA, sociology, 1980)

H. Dean Gibson, chair Retired Partner, Aon Hewitt (BA, sociology, 1974)

Heidi Gossett Claims Manager, NiSource (BA, criminology and criminal justice, 1995)

Brian Hunt Retired, U.S. Probation Officer (BA, sociology, 1981)

Risa Dinitz Lazaroff Professor, Legal Research and Writing Capital University Law School (JD, The Ohio State University, 1987)

Jose M. Lopez Attorney, Lopez, Severt & Pratt Co., L.P.A. (BA, sociology, 1975)

Ramiro Martinez Professor, Criminology and Criminal Justice Sociology, and Anthropology Northeastern University (PhD, sociology, 1992)

ROSTER OF ACCOMPLISHMENTS

• Funding a new study-abroad scholarship program for students participating in sociology’s exclusive programs in Poland and Rwanda. To date, more than 20 students have been awarded funds.

• Helping the department to enhance outreach and messaging to prospective majors.

• Consulting with faculty on a new data analytics-based courses to help students broaden their knowledge of social science data sources, sharpen analytic skills and graphically present their research findings.

• Launching the Sociology Salon, an annual public lecture on a pressing sociological issue.

Q&A WITH H. DEAN GIBSON, ADVISORY BOARD CHAIR

H. Dean Gibson (sociology, 1974) is a retired partner of Aon Hewitt, one of the world's largest human resources, actuarial and risk management consulting firms. For more than 30 years, he served as client relationship manager to many midsize Fortune 500 and 1000 companies and organizations. His experience included publicly traded and privately owned corporations, as well as public-sector and tax-exempt organizations.

In 2016, Gibson was finishing up his second and final term on Ohio State’s National Alumni Advisory Council as liaison to the College of Arts and Sciences when sociology chair Claudia Buchmann asked him to help create and chair the advisory board. He shares his thoughts on taking on the role and the mission of the board in supporting the department’s advancement.

Why did you choose to accept the leadership role for the Sociology Alumni Advisory Board?

I felt truly blessed to have another opportunity to give back to the university and department to help its students, faculty, staff, alumni and friends, the community and the discipline itself. My Ohio State student experience and degree in sociology have given me so much to be thankful for and positive opportunities to have a career I truly enjoyed, a wonderful family and the ability to serve others through community service throughout my life. But for Ohio State and my sociology degree I may not have had these opportunities.

I'm extremely passionate about how important the degree and discipline of sociology is — it's foundational, versatile, teaches you to think critically, creatively and strategically, and offers unlimited career possibilities. The department and discipline, through its research, are finding state-ofthe-art solutions to some of society’s most critical issues today.

What is the board's role?

First, we are a philanthropic board, so our main responsibility is to provide financial support for student and faculty scholarship and research, as well as other department initiatives. An additional significant role is listening and providing advice and encouragement to the department chair, faculty and staff in their critically important roles as teachers, researchers and mentors. We need to keep inspiring an already highly motivated faculty and staff to keep making a difference, every day, in finding best-practice solutions to the world’s most critical and complex societal issues.

We mentor and encourage students through our own personal testimonies. We let them know their sociology, criminology and criminal justice studies education will provide them a strong academic foundation and tools from which to achieve a highly successful career, personal life and in some way, make the world a better place. We also fully support the department’s focus on diversity and inclusion, and the efforts to increase the number of first-generation students both at the undergraduate and graduate levels.

The backgrounds of the board members are varied — business, law, government, academics and nonprofit — is that by design?

It’s important to have a variety of perspectives and careers represented on the board to better support the department and to show students, faculty and alumni that there are many highly successful careers and career paths that await sociology majors.

The diversity of our board reflects the array of excellent sociology alumni who have excelled in a wide variety of careers, as well as the vast career opportunities and possibilities sociology majors have after graduation.

What are the board's plans to engage alumni?

The board is considering a number of ideas to engage and stay connected with sociology, criminology and criminal justice studies alumni. One of them is to sponsor an annual salon-style seminar on trending sociology, criminology and criminal justice topics. Our inaugural Sociology Salon was held last spring and featured Assistant Professor Hollie Nyseth Brehm and her research on understanding genocide. We are currently planning our spring 2019 event, so stay tuned!

There's also discussion about hosting a series of book talks, led by a faculty member, one time per semester. We are considering live-streaming talks for alumni who live long distances from main campus. Additional ideas include inviting sociology alumni to participate in career panels for students and other alumni and organizing periodic mentoring events.

If you are interested in learning about ways to work with and support the mission of the Sociology Advisory Board, please contact Sociology Professor Ryan King, king.2065@osu.edu.