From the CHRR Director’s Desk Issue #25
By Stephen M. Gavazzi, Ph.D.
The Latest News, Views, and Announcements
What’s New at CHRR
This month begins my third year at the helm of Ohio State’s amazing center for data and survey excellence. My, how time flies! I continue to marvel at the strengths and opportunities that CHRR can take advantage of at this unique moment in time, while appreciating the challenges that team members have worked to overcome in the last couple of years. We now are in a position of recognizing our excellence while continuing to strive for eminence!
One way to accelerate our pursuit for renown is to better understand how colleagues are pursuing their own paths towards prominence. On this front, I am delighted to announce that John Bridges, Ohio State Professor in the Department of Biomedical Informatics, will be leading a symposium here at CHRR to discuss the survey methods and approaches they are employing in their research. This symposium – Advancing and applying methods to measure the priorities and preferences of patients and other stakeholders in medicine – will be held on Thursday, May 30th from 10:00 am through 12:00 noon. Light refreshments and coffee will be served beginning at 9:30 in the CHRR Large Conference Room. If you have not received an email invitation to this event as yet and you would like to attend, please send your RSVP to Brittany Poast at poast.6@osu.edu on or before May 27th so that we can have an accurate headcount.
CHRR's Leadership Team
As noted in last month’s newsletter, the CHRR Leadership Team met for the fourth and final time with Jeff Agnoli in service to our Strategic Doing work. At present, the Strategic Doing Team continues to work on a document that outlines all of the next steps predicated on our activities to date. This will include a continued effort to define our mission, vision, and values in service to communicating with internal and external stakeholders, as well as opening a dialogue with various unit administrators and college leaders regarding our present and future contributions to the College and University.
CHRR Team Member Celebrations
“Far and away the best prize that life has to offer is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.” -Theodore Roosevelt
This month we are observing the work anniversaries of four valued employees:
- Karima Nagi, 34 years of service to CHRR (including 8 years post-retirement).
- Jeremy Alexander, 17 years of service to CHRR.
- Scott Cooney, 16 years of service to CHRR.
- Gary Shadley, 8 years of service to CHRR.
These four individuals collectively have provided CHRR with 75 years of experience in data management, technology services, and administrative functioning. Thank you for all that you do!
Things You Might Want to Know
New Social Media Efforts to be led by Clare Jellick
CHRR is getting more (virtually) social! We are planning to reinvigorate our social media presence in the coming months — and we need your help! You can help us in this effort by creating ideas for topics to share on our social channels: X (formerly Twitter) and LinkedIn. Ideas can range from fun to informative to celebratory. And they don’t always need to be about CHRR and its projects. We also want our collective personality to shine, so if a topic gets you excited, let’s spread the joy! Please send your ideas to Clare Jellick — she’s heading up our social media reinvigoration and will likely be snapping pics at upcoming gatherings. Clare said not to worry if your idea isn’t completely thought out. It’s the spark of an idea that matters! And if you happen to see something silly, interesting, or amazing happening in and around CHRR, please take pics and send them Clare’s way.
New Publication from the Adolescent Health & Development in Context Study
The work of Ohio State University sociology researchers Chris Browning and Bethany Boettner recently was published in the Journal of Adolescent Health. Using data gathered from Columbus area teens in partnership with CHRR (Tammy Zimmerman is our longstanding project lead on this initiative), the researchers reported on a number of important findings. Perhaps most surprisingly, this study noted that some African American teens in Columbus feel less safe in white neighborhoods – especially when they had spent more time in those neighborhoods. In addition to the publication, this work recently was covered by WOSU radio, which included a fascinating discussion of these findings with Professor Browning.
NSASS Data from CHRR Undergirds Award-Winning Sociology Thesis
Undergraduate sociology student Echo Joyce recently defended his undergraduate research thesis on queer experiences in sport, and in the process won an Outstanding Sports and Society Research award at the recent OSU Sports and Society Initiative Undergraduate Research Fair and Sports Analytics Conference. Advised by sociology professors Chris Knoester and Rin Reczek, Echo used National Sports and Society Survey (NSASS) data for his research, which was the very first study undertaken with what is now known as the American Population Panel (APP). Echo also was awarded a $5K Undergraduate Research Scholarship to further develop the thesis and push it towards publication.
Additionally, undergraduate biology students Rohini Kumar and John Strzalka also used NSASS data and were reported to have done similar great work in terms of defending their theses and presenting findings at the conference. Rohini studied sports-related injuries over the life course, while John analyzed the implications of youth sports participation for occupational success in adulthood. Both of these students were advised by Chris Knoester and his fellow sociology professor Dana Haynie.
