Alumni updates from across the nation<\/h2>\n<\/header>\n
In each issue of Sociology News<\/em>, we have caught up with several WSU alumni to ask about the career path they followed since completing their degrees, and to share memories of their time in Pullman. In this issue we have comments from four individuals who completed their PhDs in Pullman between at about the same time (2002-2005), live in different regions of the U.S., and apply their sociological skills to various kinds of challenges.<\/p>\n Those who have honored us by providing commentaries on their careers to date are Chad Smith now in Austin, Texas; Marcia Gossard in Pullman, Washington; and Irshad Altheimer in Rochester, New York.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Chad L. Smith (PhD 2005), Associate Professor and Associate Chair, Department of Sociology, Texas State University<\/strong><\/p>\n Chad began the WSU PhD program in 1997 and took a faculty position at Texas State University in the fall of 2004, completing his degree in the spring of 2005. He was tenured in 2011 and has served as Associate Chair since 2013. In the fall of 2015, Chad will become Chair of the Department of Sociology at Texas State University. In his years at Texas State University, Chad\u2019s research has focused on environmental inequality and the \u201ctreadmill of destruction.\u201d He has taught undergraduate and graduate courses on environmental sociology, quantitative research methods, and social inequality.<\/p>\n Chad comments upon his time at WSU and his life and career since leaving:<\/p>\n \u201cIt is hard to believe that it has been 18 years since I first set foot on the campus of WSU in Pullman. Although I cannot claim to have always enjoyed my time in Pullman, it left an unmistakable imprint on my life. I look back fondly upon my graduate student years, not only because I met lifelong friends and colleagues but also because the experience was laced with an intense exploration for knowledge and ideas and included never-ending amounts of thought-provoking conversation. I miss the terrain and outdoor activities offered by the Pacific Northwest. I also miss the mild summers and Rico\u2019s\u2014not necessarily in that order.<\/p>\n \u201cI am lucky to maintain many connections with WSU. I continue to collaborate with several faculty (Gregory Hooks, former WSU faculty and Clay Mosher, WSU-Vancouver) on research projects. I have also encouraged several MA graduates from our program at Texas State University to attend WSU and one has already graduated with a PhD (Michelle Edwards) and one is ABD (Michael Lengefeld).<\/p>\n \u201cMost of my research these days focuses upon the \u201ctreadmill of destruction\u201d thesis that Gregory Hooks and I developed while I was a graduate student in Pullman. It has been a fulfilling professional experience to work closely with Greg over these years and to collaborate on what has become a decades-long investigation of the environmental consequences of the military.<\/p>\n \u201cTexas State University has been a good home to me. I have had incredible teaching experiences and I work in a remarkably collegial environment. I\u2019ve explored a number of exciting and rewarding professional challenges, including collaboration with graduate students and a sustained research agenda. Perhaps most importantly to me, the position at Texas State University allowed me to return to my old stomping grounds of Austin, where I now live with my wife (Andrea) and our two sons (Langston and Ellison). I still run and play tennis, and Austin\u2019s lively music scene, never-ending supply of tacos, and growing microbrew movement keep us busy. Life is good here in Austin.\u201c<\/p>\n Marcia Gossard (\u201999 MA, \u201904 PhD), writer and editor<\/strong> During her last year of graduate school, Marcia got the opportunity of a lifetime. She had received a Science and Technology Policy Fellowship through the American Association for the Advance<\/a>ment of Science <\/a>and was granted a post in the Office of Climate Change at the State Department, her dream assignment as an environmental sociologist. But flying home from Washington, DC, for the third time that month, after three rounds of grueling interviews, she didn\u2019t feel so well.<\/p>\n \u201cI thought I had food poisoning or a parasite,\u201d she said. \u201cThe good news was that I was pregnant.\u201d<\/p>\n Marcia and her husband were Washington state natives\u2014and moving away from family to the other Washington suddenly lost its appeal.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s when I decided\u2014naively\u2014to become a science writer,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n They wanted to stay near her parents, and with few career options for newly minted Sociology PhDs in Pullman, freelance science writing seemed like the perfect career. Two years before the State Department offer, Marcia had also been part of the AAAS Mass Media Science & Engineering Fellows Program<\/a>, funded through the American Sociological Association. In 2002, she spent 10 weeks at Newsweek<\/em> in New York City, learning how to communicate science to a general audience.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was an incredible learning experience,\u201d she said, \u201cand is something I\u2019m still passionate about.\u201d<\/p>\n Over the last decade, she has worked with national clients including AAAS, the US Forest Service, and a major advocacy group in Washington, DC. She has written and edited material for general and scientific audiences in various scientific disciplines including analytic chemistry, economics, forestry, fisheries, and sociology.<\/p>\n Currently, Gossard works as a senior writer at the WSU College of Veterinary Medicine.<\/p>\n \u201cOne thing I can say is that it never gets boring,\u201d she said. \u201cI do miss conducting my own research, but I get to read and learn about a wide variety of research in many different sciences.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Chad](\"https:\/\/wpcdn.web.wsu.edu\/wp-cas\/uploads\/sites\/3221\/2015\/02\/ChadSmith.jpg\")
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