Board of Visitors
The Board of Visitors is a group of alumni and friends who support, advise, and advocate for the Sociology Department. The Board is dedicated to promoting the long-term development of relationships with alumni and friends, and to building the resource base necessary to sustain the Department as a world leader in the social sciences. The Board may advise and assist with development and outreach efforts, help the Department expand career opportunities for students, keep the Department informed of best business practices, and serve as goodwill ambassadors for the Department.
Members of the Board of Visitors
Tom Weirath (Board Chair)
Tom Block
Richard Thomas Campbell
Karen Dean
Lori Hanes
Andrea Konz
Jesus Martinez
Nancy Mathiowetz
Andrew Richter
Andrew Seaborg
John Yagla
Ex officio members
Dani Luckett
Doug Maynard
James Montgomery
Tom Block is the chief operating officer of Foley Hoag LLP, a leading Boston law firm, where he has oversight of all business operations, including finance, HR, IT, marketing and facilities. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a bachelor’s degree in sociology and later became president and chief operating officer of a digital media company with five locations in the United States. For several years prior to that, he was a senior executive (including the chief operating officer position) at one of New England's largest full-service marketing agencies. In this role he had full financial responsibility and completed a major restructuring program for the agency, which resulted in a substantial improvement in the company's profitability. He began his business career as a consultant with Bain and Company, a premier management consulting firm, where he managed client relationships of large U.S. and multinational clients dealing with critical strategic, operational and marketing issues. He has served on a number of public and private boards of directors and is a contributor to legal and business publications on issues of professional services strategy and operations. He holds a master’s degree from the City University of New York at Stony Brook. Richard Thomas Campbell is professor emeritus of biostatistics and sociology at the Institute for Health Research and Policy at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Dr. Campbell's research interests include aging and health, racial, ethnic and socio-economic disparities in health, methodology of longitudinal research, and statistical analysis of developmental data. He has a bachelor's degree in history, a master's degree in education (guidance & counseling) and a Ph.D. in sociology, all from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is a past recipient of the Distinguished Career Contribution to Gerontology Award from the Gerontology Society of America, and was recognized as an Institute for Health Research and Policy fellow for 2010-2011.
Karen Dean is an active community volunteer. She is currently serving on the Business Improvement District Board for the Village of Shorewood, is very involved with the Milwaukee Repertory Theater, volunteers with the downtown Kiwanis Club of Milwaukee, is a mentor in an inner city school in Milwaukee, and is on the board of a political action group called Grassroots North Shore. In addition, she recently completed two terms on the Community Development Authority of Shorewood, three terms on the Board of Trustees of the Milwaukee Repertory Theater, and five terms on the board of the Friends of the Rep. She is retired as secretary/treasurer from the small business that her husband, Robert, founded. The company patented engineered concrete products and licensed companies around the world to produce them. Prior to that, Karen worked as a substitute teacher for eight years after receiving her Master's degree in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Karen received her bachelor's degree in sociology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and worked on a medical research project for the Medical College of Wisconsin for three years following her graduation.
Lori A. Hanes is the director-human resources/HR lead for the Planning and Products function which includes: Investment Products and Services Administration, PAS (Planning and Sales), WMC (Wealth Management Company), LAP (Life and Annuity Products), DI (Disability Income), LTC (Long-Term Care), and UW (Underwriting Standards) Departments at Northwestern Mutual. She has been in this role since 2010. Previous roles at the company include positions in the organization and employee development, talent acquisition and compensation areas of Human Resources. In her current position she is responsible for all human resources direction and activities within this functional area. Her scope of responsibilities include: organization structure, leadership development, compensation, employee relations, and employee engagement issues facing the workforce.
Hanes joined Northwestern Mutual in 1988 as a compensation analyst in Human Resources. She held various positions in compensation, including moving to the compensation administrator position in 1995. She was promoted to lead the talent acquisition division function in 1997 and the organization development division in 2001. She obtained the HR lead role in 2002 and became the functional HR lead in 2010.
Professionally, Hanes is a member of MACA (Milwaukee Area Compensation Association), SHRM (Society of Human Resources Professionals), and FHRA (Financial Human Resources Association). Her personal areas of interest include travel, running, and women's rowing.
Andrea Konz is director of organization and talent development at SCJohnson. She was previously director of organizational effectiveness at the company. She is responsible for delivery of all talent management and learning solutions as well as global team and organizational development programs. She holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology and sociology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and a master’s degree and Ph.D. in industrial/organizational psychology from the University of Maryland College Park.
Dani Luckett is a UW Foundation Director of Development for the College of Letters & Science. Prior to coming to the foundation, she worked in development and event planning at VSA Arts of Wisconsin, Metropolis Performing Arts Center, Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, and Kentucky Center for the Arts. She holds a master’s degree in arts administration from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a bachelor's degree from the University of Kentucky. Jesus Martinez - bio coming soon
Nancy A. Mathiowetz is a professor in the department of sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Prior to joining the faculty at UWM, she was on the faculty at the University of Maryland/University of Michigan Joint Program in Survey Methodology, spent 10 years in the service of the Federal Government, and worked as a consultant at Westat, Inc. She received a bachelor's degree in sociology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and a master's degree in biostatistics and a Ph.D. in sociology, both from the University of Michigan. She teaches graduate courses in survey methodology, questionnaire design, statistics, and data analysis. She has published articles on various topics related to assessing the quality of survey data in journals such as the Journal of Business and Economic Statistics, Handbook of Econometrics, and the American Journal of Public Health. She currently serves as editor of Public Opinion Quarterly, and is an active member of the American Association for Public Opinion Research, serving as president in 2007-2008.
Douglas Maynard is the Conway-Bascom Professor of Sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Professor Maynard's work focuses on the subfields of ethnomethodology and conversation analysis. He is the author of several books on conversation analysis and his articles have appeared in the American Journal of Sociology, the American Sociological Review, the Social Psychology Quarterly, Social Forces, and many other journals. Professor Maynard earned a bachelor’s degree in business from Oregon State University, and a master’s degree and Ph.D. in sociology, both from the University of California Santa Barbara.
James Montgomery is professor and current chair of the UW-Madison Sociology department. He holds a PhD in economics from MIT, and taught at Northwestern and the London School of Economics before moving to Wisconsin in 2000. His interest in sociology began in graduate school, with a dissertation essay on the role of social networks in the hiring process. He is a formal theorist with a wide range of substantive interests, including labor markets, social networks, religion, self-concept formation, and intergenerational transmission of cultural traits. His articles have appeared in major sociology journals (American Sociological Review, American Journal of Sociology, Sociological Methodology) as well as major economics journals (American Economic Review, Quarterly Journal of Economics). His current research focuses on two-sex population models. 
Andrew Richter is the founder and president of Richter Associates, Inc., a New York-based consulting firm specializing in compensation, benefits, and human resources strategies. His professional experience includes both management consulting and corporate executive roles as well as opportunities to contribute to these fields through publications, addresses to professional conferences, and service on the WorldatWork (American Compensation Association) Board of Directors. From 1995 to 2011, Andrew held a variety of corporate HR executive positions, first with IBM (1995-2002) and then as the SVP of Compensation and Benefits at NBC Universal (2002-2011). Andrew holds a Ph.D. and an M.A. from Yale, where he was awarded fellowships by the National Science Foundation and the Social Science Research Council. His inter-disciplinary doctoral dissertation (incorporating sociology, economics, and political science) was on the impact of multi-national corporations in developing countries. Andrew received his B.S. (with Honors) from the University of Wisconsin (Madison). At U.W., he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and played on the Varsity Soccer Club.
Andrew Seaborg is a founding partner of The Capital Group at Lincoln Financial Advisors. His fee-based financial planning practice focuses on business owners and highly compensated professionals whose personal finances require sophisticated management. Andrew was a Rotary youth exchange student to Japan at age seventeen, and prior to attending graduate school, he worked as a statistical analyst and did Japanese-English translation work in Tokyo. He is an adjunct professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Law School, and developed the course Law771: Asset Management and Financial Planning, to help attorneys get smart about investment products and insurance. Andrew serves as a voting member of the Wisconsin International Trade Council and is a member of the National Board of Directors, International Student Conference/Japan-America Student Conference. He holds bachelor’s degrees in sociology and Japanese, and a master’s degree in finance, investment & banking, all from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Thomas Weirath is retired from a twenty-year career with the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association. His responsibilities included consulting with Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans around the country on issues of performance measurement such as operations, managed care and cost containment. Prior to that he worked in health planning with the state of Wisconsin and taught at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville. He earned a bachelor’s degree in sociology from the University of Akron, and a master’s degree and Ph.D. in sociology, with an emphasis in organizational behavior, from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He now spends time volunteering in Chicago. One of his commitments is serving on a committee at the Archdiocese of Chicago to develop an educational partnership with a school system in Nigeria.
He now spends some time volunteering in Chicago. One of his commitments is serving on a committee at the Archdiocese of Chicago to develop an educational partnership with a school system in Nigeria.
John Yagla - bio coming soon