Joseph D. Yenerall, Ph.D.

Associate Professor
Sociology Department

Director
Graduate Center for Social and Public Policy

Office: 539A College Hall
412.396.6493
yenerall@duq.edu

Dr. Yenerall has been a member of the Policy Center's faculty since its inception. His policy interests include gerontology, educational policy and community policy.

Prior to coming to Duquesne, Dr. Yenerall served as a project director for the National Council on the Aging, Inc., as a research professor with the Institute for Public Policy Alternatives, State University of New York, Albany, and for eight years as chair of the Sociology Department at State University College, Potsdam, New York. Dr. Yenerall was named a Fulbright Scholar in Social Gerontology, 1999-2000, for teaching and research at the University of Jyvaskyla, Finland. He has completed field research in Mexico, England, Japan, Ghana, West Africa, and Finland.

Education

B.S., California State University, Sociology, 1964
M.A., Duquesne University, Sociology, 1996
Ph.D., The Pennsylvania State University, Sociology, 1970

Research, Publications and Service

Professor Yenerall is currently involved with research on the educational needs and motivations of older adults, social structures for later life education, and correlates of suicide in rural communities. He has published articles in the International Journal of Educational Gerontology, Sociological Focus, the Journal of Clinical Gerontology, Sociological Viewpoints, and the Journal of Geriatrics and Gerontological Education. He is the author of three books, The Rural Aged in America (SUNY Press, 1976), A Study Guide For Introductory Sociology (Little, Brown and Co., 1983) and, most recently, The Rural Elderly (Mellon Publishers, 1999).

Dr. Yenerall serves on the editorial advisory boards of McGraw-Hill and The Dushkin Publishing Group. He is past president of the New York Sociological Society, Pennsylvania Sociological Society and editor of NCSA Notes, the newsletter of the North Central Sociological Association. Dr. Yenerall is a member of the editorial board of the journal Sociological Viewpoints and a member of the Publications Committee of the North Central Sociological Association. Most recently, Professor Yenerall was elected to the Executive Council of the North Central Sociological Association (2005-2007).

Statement

Our Policy Center should be oriented to the analysis of the major social concerns of our time with an eye toward generating findings with regard to these issues that will inform public policy. This effort will require the careful observation of events within our society and the global community, rigorous analysis of those observations and a commitment to disseminate our conclusions to those who affect public policy.