Dr. Tom VanValey
Emeritus
Office: (269) 387-5296
Location
3214 Sangren Hall, Mail Stop 5257
Education
Ph.D., University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, 1971
Bio
Dr. VanValey has previously served faculties of Colorado State University, the University of Massachusetts (Amherst), and the University of Virginia. He was professor in the WMU Department of Sociology until he retired as an emeritus in 2007. He has about 50 refereed publications to his credit, and has made more than 150 presentations at regional, national, and international professional meetings and workshops.
He has been involved in applied social research for more than thirty years, and has been director or co-director of more than 75 research projects, totaling over 3.5 million dollars. He directed the Michigan Alcohol and Other Drugs project which administered substance abuse surveys to 8th, 10th, and 12th graders in Michigan public schools. He is currently co-director of a two year, NSF-sponsored project on ethical decision-making. He is also working on a research project with Kathleen Tiemann of the University of North Dakota on the patterns of mobility into and out of the position of department chair and factors related to those decisions.
He has also been actively involved in professional organizations. Dr. VanValey has held several offices in the Michigan Sociological Association, served on the Teaching Committee and Council of the North Central Sociological Association, and was an elected Councilor of the Council for Undergraduate Research. He is still an active member of the American Sociological Association's Department Resources group, and was a past chair of the ASA's Committee on Professional Ethics.
