William MacDonald CV 

I started at The Ohio State University in 1992 as an assistant professor of sociology at Ohio State Newark and served as the campus’s dean and director from 2004 to 2024. From 2010 to 2019, I also served as executive dean of the regional campuses. During my time as dean and director, the Ohio State Newark raised over $50 million for scholarships, new buildings and renovations. The campus also completed capital projects totaling over $80 million. I am especially proud of the community relationships that the campus created or developed in my 20 years as dean and director, and I am grateful to Explore Licking County for bestowing its 2017 Impact Award for Best Collaboration on Ohio State Newark and The Works for partnering to construct and operate the SciDome planetarium at The Works in downtown Newark. I am also proud of the collaboration between Ohio State Newark and Central Ohio Technical College and am grateful to the Licking County Chamber of Commerce for selecting COTC and Ohio State Newark as co-recipients of its 2019 STEM Business of the Year Award for the impact of the Alford Center for Science and Technology. Leading Ohio State Newark was incredibly rewarding, and I am excited to be returning to my faculty role and to studying the influence of social forces shape religious beliefs and the influence of religious beliefs on attitudes and behaviors. My most immediate goal is to study the persistence of supernatural beliefs from an interdisciplinary perspective.