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Soc Alum and Advisory Board Member Dean Gibson to be awarded ASC Distinguished Service Award

April 30, 2021

Soc Alum and Advisory Board Member Dean Gibson to be awarded ASC Distinguished Service Award

Advisory Board Chair, H. Dean Gibson

Each year, the College of Arts and Sciences Honoring Excellence ceremony recognizes a distinguished few of our more than 210,000 living alumni. Their accomplishments are tangible evidence of the lasting value of an Arts and Sciences education. These contributions to their fields, communities, country, college and university make a lasting difference — locally and globally. 

The ceremony features the following honors:

  • The Distinguished Service Award, which recognizes exemplary service to the College of Arts and Sciences, its faculty, students, prospective students or programs.
  • The Young Alumni Achievement Award, which recognizes an alumnus/a 35 years old or younger who has demonstrated distinctive achievement in a career or civic involvement or both.
  • The Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award, which recognizes the outstanding career achievements and contributions of our alumni in fields such as arts, business, research, academics and public service.

Learn more about the recipients here and register up to listen to our winners in conversation with Executive Dean and Vice Provost Gretchen Ritter at the bolded links below.

May 6 Honoring Excellence: Michael Jaung and Pam Tanowitz

May 20 Honoring Excellence: Dean Gibson, Keith B. Key, and Rosie Phillips Davis


Dean Gibson, Distinguished Service Award

Dean Gibson (BA, sociology, '74) is a retired partner of Aon Hewitt, a global human resources, actuarial, benefits and risk management consulting firm. An active member of the Ohio State community, he created, chaired and is immediate past chair of the Sociology Advisory Board, whose members serve the department chair with advice, philanthropic and mentorship support for students, and opportunities to advance the long-term vision and goals of the department.

Gibson serves as a mentor in the College of Arts and Sciences Match Mentor Program as well as the new Sociology Mentorship Program, which serves to guide students in their professional and career development success. Gibson also serves as a mentor in the Ohio State Young Alumni Academy, a professional and personal development program for early-career Ohio State alumni to help participants succeed in their career and life journeys.

Gibson and his wife Susan support the Department of Psychology's Center for Cognitive and Behavioral Brain Imaging, creating a fund in 2010 to provide scholarships for outstanding graduate and undergraduate students and researchers engaged in state-of-the-art, interdisciplinary neuroscience research while seeking solutions to some of the most serious and complex brain disorders. Gibson served two three-year terms on the Ohio State National Alumni Advisory Council as liaison to the College of Arts and Sciences and social and behavioral sciences division. 

Gibson also serves on the Board of Watoto Read, a nonprofit that advocates and provides resources for the education of Sub-Saharan African refugee children.