Associate Professor Maggie Bohm-Jordan, sociology, emphasizes to her students the importance of putting time into something they will find meaningful when choosing topics for their research projects. Her students will connect more deeply to the work when they have a personal interest or experience with the topic.
Associate Professor Maggie Bohm-Jordan, sociology, received a 2024 University Scholar Award.
“They own it when it is their ideas. Analyzing and writing about their findings in the research can be challenging,” Bohm-Jordan said.
Since she began teaching in the Department of Sociology and Social Work in 2016, Bohm-Jordan has worked with students in research, making sure when they graduate, they feel confident in their skills in research methods.
For six years, she has coordinated the Health, Behavior, and Society minor. Bohm-Jordan also teaches Marriage and the Family, Sociology of Childhood and Adolescence and two courses she developed, Interpersonal Violence and Social Epidemiology. Her course, Population Problems, inspired sociology and social work alum Michael Topping to take an interest in the field of demography.
Topping said Bohm-Jordan’s mentorship helped him gain valuable skills that he needed for acceptance into a top-tier graduate program at UW-Madison, where he is working to complete his thesis on the factors around healthy aging and geographic disparities in the U.S. in the development of dementia.
Looking to become a college educator like Bohm-Jordan in the future, Topping said, “I want to be the kind of professor that professors at UWSP were to me and help nurture the next generation.”
Bohm-Jordan also inspired his current research as a Ph.D. student and has co-authored two articles with Topping. During his senior year, he worked as a sociology research assistant for a college retention study and presented with Bohm-Jordan at the American Sociological Association Conference in New York City.
“She got me interested in the research process. The more I worked with her, I really enjoyed developing an idea, a research question,” he said. “She was very engaged in the work.”
She is a proud mentor, engaged and motivated to prepare and help her students to achieve their best. Bohm-Jordan has been recognized four times with the department’s Excellence in Scholar Award. This year, she was honored with the University Scholar Award in recognition of her research work with students and for her own scholarly work.
“It brings me joy to see when students develop that confidence, seeing their growth through the semester step by step,” Bohm-Jordan said. “It’s always rewarding to see.” She explained that her collegial department faculty have provided her with trust and support, consistently lending each other their insights and support, said Bohm Jordan.
Bohm-Jordan’s scholarly work has seen her publish articles in eight peer-reviewed academic journals and a book in her time as a faculty member.
She has also turned her service outward to the community as an academic partner with Marshfield Clinic Health System, assisting in securing a $500,000 grant over three years to research and combat food insecurity in six target regions. Bohm-Jordan will collaborate with health educators in the study of a family needs survey for the Community Impact Grant Program, “Feeding the Whole Child, Whole Family, Whole Community through Civic Engagement.”
To broaden her expertise, in 2020 Bohm-Jordan earned an additional master’s degree in Spatial Analysis in Public Health from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. This valuable knowledge will serve her efforts to plan curriculum for the UWSP master’s in applied social sciences, currently under development in the Department of Sociology and Social Work.