University of North Texas 
Iftekhar Amin
Iftekhar Amin received his Ph.D. from the University of North Texas in 2008, with an emphasis in social gerontology. He is an Associate Professor in the School of Human Services, University of North Texas at Dallas (UNT Dallas). His interests include inter-disciplinary research on aging, and sustainable community building. He has served as PI, Co-PI, and Evaluator on grants from diverse granting-agencies, such as the Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC), American Association for Retired Persons (AARP), Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), Administration on Aging (AoA), and Department of Health and Hospitals (DHH). His work has appeared a wide variety of journals, such as Journal of Applied Gerontology, Journal of Cross-Cultural Gerontology, Educational Gerontology, Journal of Family Violence, and Journal of Aging in Emerging Economies. He is Associate Editor of the Journal Sustainable Community Review. He is also the elected Chair of Age Well Live Well (AWLW), a coalition led by the Texas Department of Aging and Disability Services, and he holds leadership and collaborative roles in multiple multidisciplinary campus committees and in regional initiatives.
Hannah Andrades
Major Professor: Kevin McCaffree
Hannah currently works in administration at TWU but is applying to law school this semester and will be attending in fall of 2024. Getting her master's degree in Sociology, Hannah has polished her reading and writing skills to a much higher level. With the analytical and research experience from graduate school, she is more confident in her law school application and her ability to handle the rigor of future work. She also enjoys reading literary and historical fiction in her free time. She also love gardening and cooking!
Alicia Brunson
Alicia Brunson received her PhD in Sociology in 2013 with a focus on racial identity formation, film studies, and social stratification. She also received her MS in Sociology from UNT in 2007. Brunson is now an assistant professor at Georgia Southern University. She researches and teaches on institutional racism, politics of representation, media literacy, and participatory action. In particular, her current projects concern the retention and graduation rates of Black students at predominantly white institutions; racial ideologies of Millennial students; and biases among newspaper, television, and social media news journalists. Her teaching and research center on using the sociological imagination to understand social issues from multiple standpoints and working with communities to create social change.
Joseph Comeau
Joseph Comeau graduated from the UNT Sociology doctoral program in 2012 and is currently Associate Professor of Sociology at Georgia Southwestern State University in Americus, Georgia. He is interested in the sociology of education, familism, and Latina/os. Additionally, he has remained an active member of the Southwestern Sociological Association, serving as its secretary/treasurer.
Emirhan Demirhan
Emirhan Demirhan received his Master's and Ph.D. degrees in Sociology at the University of North Texas. He earned his doctorate degree in 2022 and has been working for Neiman Marcus Group as a Senior Data Scientist since 2019. He co-authored two articles that are published in peer-reviewed journals. His research interests include political sociology, computational social science, and natural language processing.
Nichola ("Nikki") Driver
Nichola ("Nikki") Driver graduated with a PhD from our program in August 2016. She is Executive Director for the Office of Field Service and an Assistant Professor at the Clinton School of Public Service. Driver teaches Field Research Methods and oversees the Practicum and IPSP experiences. Her research areas include health disparities and social determinants of health, with a focus on maternal and reproductive health.
Nikki was also named to Arkansas Business 40 Under 40 list which includes business leaders, entrepreneurs, medical professionals and others who are making a significant impact in their companies and communities.
In addition to teaching Field Research Method, Driver oversees the Practicum and IPSP experiences for all Clinton School students. In February, Driver was named as one of the leads for the Clinton School in the recently-launched Constructive Dialogue Curriculum Initiative through the Volcker Alliance.
Driver's research includes health disparities and social determinants of health, with a focus on maternal and reproductive health. Her recent projects have focused on the impact of social support for new mothers, CenteringPregnancy, factors associated with food insecurity among Latino families, perceptions of and access to contraception in Arkansas, and the impact of group prenatal care on birth outcomes. A native Arkansan, she strives to contribute to positive social change in her home state.
Stacey L. Ford
Stacey L. Ford received her Ph.D in Sociology from the University of North Texas in 2020 with a focus on Race & Ethnicity, Social Stratification and Women's Studies. While studying at UNT, Ford guest lectured on topics including gender, sexuality and non-normative lifestyles. The primary focus of her dissertation topic and current research focuses on the reasons why a disproportionate number of African American women remain unmarried compared to other U.S. women. She is also a Dallas Morning News Best Selling Author of "Selling the Fantasy," a novel based on a polyamorous relationship.
Elizabeth Gabhart
Elizabeth Gabhart received her Bachelor's, Master's, and Doctorate degrees from the University of North Texas Sociology department. She earned her Ph.D. in 2017 and is now an Associate Professor of Sociology at Tarrant County College in Texas. She loves working there and reports that her students are amazing. Her research interests include religion, spirituality, morality, and gender. Her primary interest is in teaching Sociology, specifically focusing on student engagement techniques, such as service learning.
Nikolitsa Grigoropoulou
Dr. Nikolitsa Grigoropoulou is a postdoctoral researcher in Computational Social Science at the University of Bremen. She holds a B.Sc. in Psychology from Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences (Greece) and an M.Sc. and a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of North Texas (U.S.A), where she pursued her graduate studies with the kind sponsorship of the Fulbright Foundation and the Institute of International Education (IIE). Substantively, she is an interdisciplinary social inequality scholar with an emphasis on intergroup dynamics, such as polarization - along religious, ethnic, and national lines, - marginalized communities and well-being, and financial decision-making. As a part of her research in the Excellence Chair project "Large-Scale Data and Field Research in the Study of Social Networks" at the University of Bremen, she examines quality and classification issues in the operationalization of large-scale data and the extent to which surveys and qualitative methods can aid "big data" research to produce reliable social science.
Suheyl Gurbuz
Dr. Suheyl Gurbuz received his Master's and Doctorate degrees from the University of North Texas Sociology department. He earned his Ph.D. in 2018 and worked as an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Midwestern State University until August 2020. He taught Introduction to Sociology, Criminology, Research Methods, and Statistics among others. His research interests include medical sociology, criminology, and computational social science. Since graduate school, he has co-authored several articles published in peer-reviewed journals. He is currently working as a Sr. Data Scientist at FedEx. His responsibilities include building and maintaining machine learning and rule-based models, communicating data science projects with businesses, working with vendors on the models they provide, and conducting ad hoc analyses requested by businesses.
Lindsey Huang
Lindsey A. Huang received her Ph.D. from the University of North Texas in 2015. She is an Assistant Professor of Sociology and served as the Sociology Program Director at Fresno Pacific University before joining the faculty at Biola University where she serves as associate professor of intercultural studies in the Cook School of Intercultural Studies. .Since graduate school she has co-authored articles published in the Interdisciplinary Journal for Research on Religion and in the Journal of Sociology and Christianity. She is an active member of the Pacific Sociological Association. Her current research focuses on religious institutions of higher education and their response to the rescinding of DACA.
Michael Itashiki
Michael Itashiki received his Ph.D. in Sociology from UNT in 2011. His major professor
was Dr. Yeatts. His major area of study for his dissertation was social factors associated
with everyday crime. He is currently Professor of Sociology at Hill College. He also
produces video documentaries and multimedia for arts groups. Mike is married with
one daughter.
Syeda S. Jesmin
Syeda S. Jesmin received her Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of North Texas in 2008, with an emphasis in Medical Sociology. Dr. Jesmin is a Professor of Sociology at the University of North Texas at Dallas. With a Ph.D. in medical sociology and a background in public health (MPH), her scholarly interests center on policy-relevant research in social determinants of health, the "upstream" factors, such as social disadvantages and social inequalities that play a fundamental causal role in population health and health disparities. She conducts research that informs policymakers to better serve disadvantaged communities, at-risk populations, and racial and ethnic minorities. Much of her work focuses on the community-health relationship, including the ways in which community disadvantages increase women's vulnerability to HIV, intimate partner violence, and other health problems. Her current project, funded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) Garrett Lee Smith (GLS) Campus Suicide Prevention grant ($303,000), focuses on suicide prevention and mental health promotion at UNT Dallas and surrounding communities. Her work has appeared in a variety of journals, such as Archives of Sexual Behavior, Aggressive Behavior, Journal of Interpersonal Violence, Violence and Victims, Women & Health, Health Care for Women International, and Journal of Comparative Family Studies.
Weiqing Ji
Weiqing Ji is an accomplished, motivated, and highly skilled social science researcher who graduated with a MS in Sociology in the Spring of 2023. She is particularly interested in gender, education, and social equality. Weiqing Ji brings experience in designing research methods, coding variables, collecting and analyzing both quantitative and qualitative data, and presenting research findings as a research assistant and teaching assistant in higher education. She is proficient in various software programs, including Microsoft Office, Stata, ATLAS, R, and ArcGIS. Weiqing Ji is fully prepared and enthusiastic about working independently or as part of a team to address workplace, community, and equity issues in a professional setting. With a background in multilingual and multicultural environments, including proficiency in English, Mandarin, and Japanese, she is well-equipped to adapt to diverse, human-centered settings.
Dustin Johnson
Dustin Johnson graduated with his Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of North Texas in 2009. After graduation, he became a Research Specialist at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice-Community Justice Assistance Division (TDCJ-CJAD). His research interests include the sociology of law, deviant behavior and the use of evidence-based practices in community supervision. As a researcher with TDCJ, he conducts statewide evaluations of various treatment programs for offenders. He also conducts recidivism studies and provides statewide community supervision statistics to state agencies and criminal justice stake holders. In his spare time, he enjoys traveling, obstacle course racing and attempting to cook.
Karen Claiborne Kaiser
Karen Claiborne Kaiser received her MS in Sociology from UNT in 2006 and completed her PhD in Sociology in 2014 with a focus on the sociology of mental health, deviance, and social stratification. While a graduate student, she served as a Teaching Fellow in Sociology at both UNT and UNT Dallas. She is currently Professor of Sociology at Hill College. In addition, she serves as Program Coordinator for Hill College's Behavioral Sciences Department and as President Elect of the Faculty Senate. She teaches face-to-face and web courses, and goes on-site, as needed, to local high schools to teach dual credit. Many of her students are first generation college students, and the overwhelming majority come from disadvantaged backgrounds. She enjoys bringing sociology to students while helping them develop the tools they need to succeed in their chosen careers.
Sarah Kranz
Sarah Kranz graduated in the Spring of 2022 from the University of North Texas with an M.S. in Sociology and a minor in Nonprofit Management. They also graduated in the Spring of 2021 with a B.S. in Sociology and a minor in Women's and Gender Studies. Much of their undergraduate and graduate projects took an intersectional approach and were focused on income inequality, racial and ethnic inequality, and LGBTQIA+ experiences. Sarah's professional working experience pre-pandemic was focused on volunteer opportunities with local nonprofits. They have also gained experience working as an intern for a nonprofit this year which has allowed them to apply their academic background to a real-world setting. Sarah is most interested in pursuing a lifelong career in nonprofit work because of their passion for wanting to do work that makes a difference and meaningfully impacts people's lives.
Michael Niño
Michael Niño received his Ph.D in Sociology from the University of North Texas in 2015, with emphases in Medical Sociology and Research Methods and Statistics. His dissertation work focused on how peer relationships influence adolescent health behaviors among immigrant and socially isolated youth. He is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology & Criminology and an affiliate of the Latin American and Latino Studies program at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. He teaches courses in Latina/o Sociology, Medical Sociology, and Quantitative Methods and Statistics. His research agenda integrates theory and methods from the biological, social, and behavioral sciences to advance our understanding of population health within marginalized communities. He is a recipient of a 2018 Woodrow Wilson Career Enhancement Fellowship for Junior Faculty and is one of only 30 professors nationwide to receive the fellowship. Currently, he is working on two research projects. The first, partially funded by the Woodrow Wilson Foundation, examines how various dimensions of acculturation and perceived discrimination influence biological dysregulation (i.e. allostatic load) among Latina/os. The second project investigates how the intersections of race and parental incarceration influence cellular aging (i.e. telomere length) among young children. His research has been published in a number of academic journals such as Drug and Alcohol Dependence, Journal of School Health, International Migration Review, Addictive Behaviors, and the Journal of Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice.
Corinne Ong
Corinne Ong is a Fellow at Ridge View Residential College in Singapore. She pursued a Masters and doctorate in Sociology (minored in Anthropology) at UNT in 2010 and graduated in May 2014. She specializes in environmental and urban sociology and has applied the knowledge gained from these specializations towards her research and teaching since graduation. She was an Assistant Professor at Livingstone College in North Carolina from 2014-2015. Upon her relocation to Singapore in 2016, she partook in academic and policy research. She will be embarking on a career as a Lecturer at a national polytechnic in Singapore beginning September 2018, where she will teach sociology and research courses. A postgraduate degree in Sociology has opened many career inroads for her, as her career diversity illustrates. This demonstrates the enduring pertinence of sociological perspectives for explaining social problems, particularly its pointedness in unmasking covert forces that drive social behaviors/phenomena.
Myrna Papdouka
Myrna Papdouka graduated from the doctoral program in Sociology at UNT in 2016. After defending her dissertation, she worked for several years at the University of Cambridge as a Research Support Adviser. In 2018 she accepted an offer for the permanent position of Lecturer in Quantitative Criminology from Middlesex University in London, which has one of the oldest Criminology programs in the world. She uses advanced text mining research methods to study media representations of human trafficking and other social problems.
Jennifer Hester Popescu
Jennifer Hester Popescu graduated with her MS in Sociology from the University of North Texas in May 2000. She worked in the fundraising consulting business before joining the Texas A&M Foundation in in College Station, TX 2006. She is currently the Senior Director of Major Gifts at the Texas A&M Foundation, which is a nonprofit organization that exists for the benefit of academic programs at Texas A&M University. Her focus at the Foundation is to assist donors in finding the perfect college, program, or department to direct their philanthropic resources for the betterment of Texas A&M University. She is also the cofounder of the Women, Wealth and Wisdom program at the Texas A&M Foundation which is a free annual financial and estate planning event for women of all ages. She and her husband spend their free time tending to their land and livestock in the rural Bryan/College Station area.
Wheeler Pulliam
Wheeler Pulliam earned a doctoral degree from our program in 2014. He had used his undergraduate degree in Sociology as an officer in the US Army Infantry. He was able to apply his knowledge to his real-world mission to Bosnia in the 90s. There were 3 different factions, and the Army was tasked with keeping the peace. The fundamentals he learned in Sociology allowed him to have a better and faster understanding of what was happening, and thus allowed him to lead soldiers in a more effective matter. When he transitioned to the civilian world, the tenets of sociology once again proved useful in his new career in sales. Subsequently, not only did he obtain a Master's degree in Human Relations and a MBA, but he earned a PhD in our program. He climbed through the sales ranks to reach the national manager level with GE and Samsung. He also taught at the college level. Currently, he helps families and business owners plan out and manage their financial futures as he runs his own business as Managing Partner of Xponify Financial, a financial services company based in Dallas, TX.
Jameelah Ra'Oof
Jameelah Ra'oof recieved a PhD in Sociology from the Univesity of North Texas in Fall 2021, and her dissertation project explored topics related to artificial intelligence and their social impact in a variety of environments. She is now Senior Instructional Technologist for Jones Graduate School of Business at Rice University. She has also designed learning experiences for data scientists and software engineers at the training and talent development company SVI and served as the Coordinator of Teaching, Learning, and Academic Excellence at Texas Woman's University. In addition to having over 10 years of teaching experience at various colleges and universities, both online and F2F, she has a great deal of experience conducting research and developing curriculum. She has also spent a significant portion of her career teaching both computer science and sociology. Jameelah chose the Sociology graduate program at UNT because of her dedication to being a better educator of adults and that programs reputation for having top-notch faculty that deliver high-quality instruction. Jameelah is also an avid educational technology proponent and passionate about teaching and learning with technology.
Trent Ryan
Trent Ryan graduated with his MA from the Sociology graduate program at UNT in 2012 and then entered the doctoral program in Sociology at Emory University. He has focused on R and statistics instruction; conducted several workshops for faculty and students on topics such as web scraping, data analysis, and introduction to the R environment for newly-hired faculty and teaching assistants; and collaborated with and advised faculty on several research projects as methodologist/data analyst. His dissertation project examines the social network and scene formation dynamics in the global music scene. His research interests include quantitative and computational methods, culture, music, and organizations. The primary focus of his academic career is to utilize and develop methods to analyze complex social phenomena that can be applied to both the academic and data science/industry settings. He defended his dissertation in 2019, served as Lead Consultant at SW Analytics in Washington, D.C., and is now Research Fellow: Indigenous Data Network at the Melbourne School of Population and Global Health.
Yuying Shen
Yuying Shen received her Ph.D. in Sociology from UNT in 2012, and her major professor was Dr. Dale Yeatts. She then worked two years as a Visiting Professor at Texas Tech University. From there, she was offered a tenure-track position at Norfolk State University (NSU) and was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure in 2018. She has over two dozen publications in the area of health and aging, with many of them in highly respected journals. She currently shares a National Science Foundation grant with several other researchers at NSU. She is married with three children, and her husband is a chemist who also works at NSU.
Myron Strong
Myron Strong graduated with his Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of North Texas in 2014. He is currently an Associate Professor of Sociology at the Community College of Baltimore County in Baltimore, Maryland. As a teacher, he is active in study abroad courses. He took students to Cuba in April 2017 to conduct an ethnography, and they later presented their findings at a conference. He took another group of students to Ghana in 2019 to explore the country's health care and medical resources, as well to study Ghanaian culture and history, including the US role in the kidnapping and enslavement of Ghanaians. As a researcher, he has published work on race construction in the United Kingdom and currently explores race, gender, and social factors in comics. He has also presented papers at numerous conferences, including those of the American Sociological Association, Association of Black Sociologists, Eastern Sociological Society, and Southwestern Sociological Association. He recently received the 2019 ESS Barbara R. Walters Community College Faculty Award from the Eastern Sociological Society for his article "The Emperor Has New Clothes: How Outsider Sociology Can Shift the Discipline" (Sociological Forum 34(1): 245-252). He is also involved in the American Sociological Association and serves on various committees, including the Status Committee on Race and Ethnicity.
Stan Weeber
Stan Weeber earned his Ph.D in Sociology at the University of North Texas in 2000 and is now Professor of Sociology at McNeese State University in Lake Charles, Louisiana. He teaches Introductory Sociology, Sociological Theory, Social Stratification, U.S. and World Extremism, Collective Behavior and Social Movements, and Science, Technology and Society. His research interests include political sociology, collective behavior, and sociology of technology. He reviews manuscripts for a variety of journals, including American Sociological Review, Social Forces, and Sociological Perspectives. His own work has appeared in over two dozen journals including The American Sociologist, The Sociological Quarterly, International Review of Modern Sociology, The Journal of Public and Professional Sociology, Journal of Sociology, Journal of Applied Sociology, Contemporary Sociology, and Journal of Law, Politics, and Society.
Emma Ward
Emma Ward graduated from UNT with a Master's of Science in Sociology in Fall 2021. With a strong foundation in mixed methods research, she has successfully collaborated with notable government agencies such as HUD, CDC, and HHS. Drawing on her expertise, Emma has adeptly employed mixed methods to derive answers to complex research questions, consistently delivering insightful reports, briefs, and memos. Her professional journey underscores the practical application of sociology in policy and public health domains.
James Wicks
James Wicks completed his master's degree in Sociology at the University of North Texas in 2013 and went on to obtain a Doctorate of Education from Texas Tech University in 2021. He is committed to scholarship, as well as helping college students towards self-knowledge and critical, reflective citizenship. He specializes in academic advising, student persistence and retention, evidence-based decision making, and the practical application of theory in institutional settings. He is currently Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP) Director at Collin College.
Kathryn Wilson
Kathryn Rose Wilson earned her BS in Sociology with a minor in Criminal Justice from the University of North Texas in 2021. In 2022, she completed her MS in Sociology with a focus on childhood and adolescence sociology, work, organizations, and occupations, as well as medical sociology. Since her graduation, Kathryn has been accepted as a Juris Doctorate candidate at The Oklahoma City University School of Law. Her area of specialization is family law, driven by her aspiration to blend her sociological imagination with the pursuit of justice. Kathryn's sociology degrees have equipped her with a valuable skill set and an understanding of human behavior and society. The analytical, research, and interpersonal skills she developed during her time in the sociology program at UNT offer her a unique and insightful perspective when addressing legal issues and advocating for her clients.
Lisa Zottarelli
Dr. Lisa K. Zottarelli is Clinical Associate Professor in the College of Social Work at University of Tennessee, Knoxville. She was on the faculty at Idaho State University (2001-2003) and Texas Woman's University (2003-2013). In 2010-2011, she was a Fulbright-Nehru Research Scholar at the Center for Development Studies in Kerala, India. She joined San Antonio College in Fall 2013 as the Chair of the Department of Social Sciences and Humanities. Currently, she works on Special Projects in the Office of the President and serves as the San Antonio College - Southern Association of Colleges and Universities - Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC) Liaison. She conducts research on disasters, development, and health. Her current research focuses on climate change adaptation and social vulnerability.
Konstantinos Zougris
Konstantinos Zougris earned his doctorate in Sociology at UNT in 2015 and is now Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Hawaii-West Oahu. His teaching focuses on research methods and techniques in social sciences, social stratification, social movements and economic sociology. He has published several peer-reviewed journal articles in the fields of text analytics, research methods, economic sociology, social inequality and socioeconomic development. He is currently working on several research projects associated with the sociology of work, sociology of knowledge, and digital sociology.