Sociology professor Patricia Gwartney, founding director of the Oregon Survey Research Laboratory, has been elected president of the Pacific Sociological Association for 2014-2015.

Established in 1929, the association regularly brings together scholars, students, and practitioners to disseminate and promote sociological research. The group addresses sociological analyses of basic social structures and processes as well as social problems of the day.

"The Pacific Sociological Association is the most vibrant of the regional professional groups in the discipline, and the University of Oregon has been a leader in it from the beginning," Gwartney said. "I especially appreciate PSA for its encouragement of graduate student participation. It has been an important venue for our graduate students' professional socialization."

Gwartney said one of her goals as president will be to encourage the other comprehensive research universities in the region to involve their graduate students and graduate student mentors at the same level as the UO.

Gwartney’s research interests include survey methodology, work and gender, premarital processes and conflict resolution. She teaches social demography and research methods and measurement.

From 1992 to 2003, Gwartney founded and operated UO's Oregon Survey Research Laboratory, managing 280-plus projects and bringing in $8 million in small grants and contracts. The lab developed and documented protocols, gathering data on basic methodological questions.

Gwartney was one of 19 instructors from six countries and eight U.S. states who participated last summer in a month-long institute in survey science and statistics in North Korea.

The institute was a first-ever initiative by social scientists visiting the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. Gwartney taught statistics and research methods at the Pyongyang Summer Institute in Survey Science and Quantitative Methodology.