By Stephen M. Gavazzi, Ph.D.

The Latest News, Views, and Announcements

What’s New at CHRR

As promised in last month’s newsletter, CHRR team members gathered to celebrate the Winter Holidays this past Friday. Food treats and fun games were in abundance throughout the afternoon. The feedback was so positive, in fact, that plans are being formulated for more community-building activities in the near future. Be on the lookout for an "Ides of March" invitation!

This month we welcome our newest team member, Mark Oleson, who joins us as a Data Management Specialist within the Ohio Longitudinal Data Archive program area. Mark graduated from Ohio State with a Bachelor of Science dual degree in Economics and Political Science. While at Ohio State, he conducted research under IFIS POLPAN on democratic deconsolidation, utilizing the institute's longitudinal survey data. Shortly after this he developed an interest in cliometrics (economic history) and economic development. After graduating from Ohio State, Mark joined the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland's Research department as a Research Analyst, working primarily on the Beige Book survey administration, COVID-19 coverage (including building a weekly report and publishing one data brief on the unequal effects of the pandemic across ethnic groups), maintaining the group’s data repository and monitoring the freight, energy, and steel manufacturing sectors within the Federal Reserve's Fourth District. Initially, Mark will be working most directly with Tian Lou on various User Interface (UI) projects, including streamlining the UI dashboard and contributing to the UI Equity project.

CHRR's Leadership Team

Recently, ASC Dean David Horn recognized various staff members within the College of Arts and Sciences for extraordinary service provided to departments throughout the Covid-19 pandemic. Our very own IT Director, Nick Ramser, was selected for this honor regarding his exemplary work at CHRR. From the nomination letter:

The pandemic brought new challenges to the IT team at CHRR, as the team needed to pivot, quickly, to supporting remote work for the entire department. Nick directly supervised this effort, from developing an implementation plan, arranging the purchase and receipt of necessary supplies, distributing hardware to staff, and troubleshooting and supporting staff starting to work remotely who had never done so previously.

Additionally, our Business Operations Manager, Brittany Poast, similarly was recognized for the laudable work she accomplished while working at her previous position of employment (Molecular Genetics). Her former direct supervisor wrote that:

[I]t would be impossible not recognize Brittany’s truly outstanding contributions and heroic efforts to help guide the department through all aspects of the pandemic. This includes, but is by far not limited to campus shutdown, navigating the different policies for laboratory shutdowns and reopening implemented by different colleges and centers.

Please join me in congratulating Nick and Brittany for this acknowledgement of their commendable service!

On a different note, the tempo is picking up on our Strategic Doing/Strategic Planning efforts. The Strategic Doing books have arrived and were distributed to CHRR team members. These resources will continue to circulate as team members complete their reading and return the books to Mary’s office for new checkouts.

Things You Might Want to Know

Cooksey Continues to Generate Important Scholarly Contributions

Elizabeth Cooksey continues her long-standing contributions to survey-based scholarship through a variety of academic outlets. Among other recent presentations, she gave a keynote address entitled "Children no more: Life trajectories of the children of the NLSY79" at the Society of Longitudinal and Life Course Studies International Annual Meeting this past October, as well as an earlier talk entitled "Generations Past and Future: The Role of Longitudinal Cohort Studies for Understanding our Lives" for the Meeting Minds Global conference at the University of Oxford.

Elizabeth remains the Editor of the international journal Longitudinal and Life Course Studies (LLCS), and has written the following editorials this year:

• Cooksey, Elizabeth C. "The many faces of education within life course studies, changing data collection methods, and a protocol for data linkage and model specification to more holistically improve health and well-being in adolescence and beyond." Longitudinal and Life Course Studies 13(4): 1-4.
• Cooksey, Elizabeth C. "Sequencing, trajectories and patterns." Longitudinal and Life Course Studies 13(3): 348-351.
• Cooksey, Elizabeth C. "Our changing world." Longitudinal and Life Course Studies 13(2): 191-194.
• Cooksey, Elizabeth C. "Social mobility, life course linkages and collecting information on our genes." Longitudinal and Life Course Studies 13(1): 3-6.

Finally, Elizabeth also was an author on a new publication that used the American Population Panel (APP) as data source:

• Arocho, R., Lozano, E. B., Hansen, R. L., Rehani, R., Thompson, A. F., Fleming, T. G., and Cooksey, E. C. (2022). "Family forms survey: Identifying donor-conceived offspring, donors, and recipients in a national panel." Survey Methods: Insights from the Field. https://surveyinsights.org/?p=16931.