Alumni News

We're very interested in news from our alumni. Please let us know where you are, what you are doing, and how you like our web site. Please take a minute to bring the department and your colleagues up-to-date.

2011-2012

Letitia L. Thomas, Assistant Vice Provost and Director of the Cora P. Maloney College, will be presented with the SUNY Chancellor's Award for Excellance in Professional Service on September 19, 2011 at the Center for the Arts.

2009-2010

Don Sabo, professor of health policy at D’Youville College,will be winning an award from the D'Youville CollegeWoman's Sports Foundation for his lifetime achievement of research on women in sports. He is the first man ever to receive this award.

Beverly H. Wright (PhD '77), currently head of the the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice at Dillard University in New Orleans, was awarded the prestigious Heinz Award in fall 2009 for taking on issues of environmental racism and bringing to light environmental issues as it relates to poor and minority communities across the country.

David Broad (PhD '86), professor of sociology at North Georgia and State University is teaching summers at the University of Paris.

2008-2009

David Wachtel (PhD '82), currently a Professor of Sociology at Bluegrass Community and Technical College in Lexington, Kentucky , has been appointed the Director of China Partnerships for the Kentucky Community and Technical College System. His job is to recruit students and faculty from China and assign them to one of the 16 colleges in system. In addition, he sends his faculty to various Chinese universities to teach. He has been teaching in China each summer since 1995.

2007-2008

Haixia Wang (PhD '07) has been hired by the Institute for Children and Poverty in New York City. It is a think tank organization affiliated with Columbia University. They also publish a journal, the Journal of Children and Poverty, with an editorial board of public policy faculty from major league universities. Professor Michael P. Farrell states "I am sure that ICP was impressed by here training at UB, her dissertation on family dynamics and acculturation of immigrants, and her fellowship with the Center for the Development of Human Services. They interviewed her and hired her on the spot." It is a great position for a graduate of a program that specializes in public sociology. Here is an internet note about them: The Institute for Children and Poverty (ICP) "is an independent nonprofit research and development organization. Founded in New York City in 1990, ICP focuses on action-oriented research designed not just to study the complex issue of family homelessness, but also to provide data and ideas that will inform and enhance public policy on serving homeless families. In addition to bringing information to policy makers at all levels of government and to colleagues in the research and advocacy community, ICP also works to raise public awareness of homelessness through publications and other materials for schools and communities."

Joyce A. Joyce, (PhD '05) an Assistant Professor at St. Bonaventure University, has published Women, Marriage and Wealth: The Impact of Marital Status on the Economic Well-Being of Women Through the Life Course with Gordian Knot Books, distributed by University of Nebraska Press. Friends wishing to contact Joyce can do so at jjoyce@sbu.edu.

Charles Jarmon (PhD ) is Professor and Associate Dean for the Social Sciences at Howard University. He is a sociologist. He received the B.S. and M.A. degrees from North Carolina College, and studied as a James B. Duke fellow at Duke University. He received his Ph.D. from SUNY at Buffalo and is certified as a clinical sociologist at Georgetown University. His teaching, research, and publications have been in the areas of comparative urbanization; urban policy; social stratification/social mobility; and nation-building and development in West Africa, particularly in Nigeria. He is a former book review editor of the Journal of African and Asian Studies, and he is currently a member of the editorial board of the Canadian Review of Studies in Nationalism. He has published several books, monographs, chapters, articles, and book reviews. Contact Charles at coas@howard.edu.

2006-2007

Xinwei Miao (PhD '05) left the New York City Comptroller's Office in August 2006 to join the Bloomberg administration. Currently, she serves as Assistant Director of the NYC Mayor's Office of Contract Services. In addition, Mayor Bloomberg appointed her, in March 2007, to represent him on the Board of Directors of the Flushing Council on Culture and the Arts/Flushing Town Hall. Friends wishing to contact Xinwei (Michelle) can do so at MMiao@cityhall.nyc.gov.

Joseph Bauer (PhD '92) has been appointed Director of Survey Research, Statistics and Evaluation Center (SEC) at the National Home Office of the American Cancer Society located in Atlanta, GA. Friends wishing to contact Joe can do so at Joseph.Bauer@cancer.org.

The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) has awarded a $579,325 grant to Amy Hequembourg, Ph.D., of the University at Buffalo's Research Institute on Addictions (RIA) to study the role of gender and sexual identity in alcohol use and victimization. The Mentored Research Scientist Development Award will support five years of both research and professional development. "The research component, known as the COPE Study, will include recruitment of a total of 400 gay men, lesbians, and bisexual men and women (GLBs) to discuss alcohol use and interpersonal violence, including childhood sexual abuse, sexual assault, and intimate partner violence" Hequembourg explained. COPE stands for Conversations on Personal Experiences. There are a range of risk and protective factors associated with alcohol use and victimization among individuals who face stress associated with social stigmatization of their sexual identities, according to Hequembourg. She will investigate social support systems, involvement in GLB community activities, and relationships with family, friends, and coworkers. "Understanding risk and protective factors for this population could greatly enhance the effectiveness of alcohol and victimization prevention, early intervention and treatment efforts," Hequembourg said. The professional development component of the award includes training in advanced statistical analysis and methods for combining qualitative and quantitative approaches in research. Hequembourg's mentors include RIA Senior Research Scientists Kathleen A. Parks, Ph.D.; R. Lorraine Collins, Ph.D., who is also a research professor in UB's Department of Psychology; and Michael R. Frone, Ph.D., who is also a research associate professor in UB's Department of Psychology. They will provide collective expertise in addictions research, victimization studies, and advanced statistical analyses. Hequembourg recently completed the NIAAA-funded postdoctoral associate program for research training on alcohol etiology and treatment at RIA. The Research Institute on Addictions, a leader in the study of addictions since 1970 and a research center of excellence at the University at Buffalo since 1999, is located on the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus. The University at Buffalo is a premier research-intensive public university, the largest and most comprehensive campus in the State University of New York.

Amy Pienta (PhD '96) was promoted to Associate Research Scientist (9/2006) at ICPSR, University of Michigan. Friends wishing to contact Amy can do so at apienta@umich.edu.

2005-2006

Arthur E. Levine (PhD '76), president of Teachers College at Columbia University, has been named President of the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation in Princeton, NJ effective summer 2006. Arthur is also a past recipient of the 1997 Distinguished Alumni Award.

Deborah Bruch Bucki (PhD '98) has recently been appointed Deputy Supervisor and Council member in the town of Amherst, New York. Friends wishing to contact her can do so at debbucki@aol.com.

2003-2004

Michael Hsiao (PhD '79 ), is Professor at National Taiwan University and Director, Southeast Asia Center for Social Research at Academia Sinica. He served as a cabinet minister to the President of Taiwan. He acts as television commentator and pundit for a Taiwan newspaper. He was awarded the Distinguished Alumni Award in 2004.

Dr. Michele Greene (MA '74) is a Professor in the Department of Health and Nutrition Sciences at Brooklyn College and an Adjunct Professor of Public Health in Medicine in the Division of Geriatrics and Gerontology at the Weill Medical College of Cornell University. Friends wishing to contact Michele can e-mail her at MGGreene@brooklyn.cuny.edu.