Dr. Van Valey is the Project Director for the Michigan Alcohol and Other Drugs School Survey (MAOD). He is the former Director of The Kercher Center for Social Research and is currently a Professor of Sociology and Chair of the Department of Western Michigan University. Dr. Van Valey received his PhD from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1971, and has served on the faculties of Colorado State University, The University of Massachusetts, and the University of Virginia. Dr. Van Valey has been involved in applied social research for more than twenty years, and has been director or co-director of more than 100 research projects, totaling nearly two million dollars. In addition to adolescent substance use and issues of safety and violence in the schools, his current research interests include the role of the academic department chair, and the peer review of teaching.
