Rate My Professor Brett Zollinger

Dr. Brett Zollinger serves as Professor and Chair of Sociology Programs and Director of the Docking Institute of Public Affairs at Fort Hays State University. He joined the university in 1998 following his Ph.D. in Sociology from Utah State University in 1998, M.S. from Utah State University in 1994, and B.A. from Northwestern Oklahoma State University in 1992. Prior to FHSU, he worked at Utah State University's Institute for Social Science Research on Natural Resources. During his tenure at the Docking Institute, he held positions as research scientist from 1998 to 2008 and director from 2002 to 2008, rejoining as director in August 2019. His work at the institute has involved designing and conducting survey research projects at local, state, and regional levels on diverse topics including public health and wellness awareness, attitudes toward wildlife management and recreational hunting, labor availability, health care needs assessment, housing and city services satisfaction, quality of life, crime and domestic violence issues, and use of conservation tree plantings. He has also conducted numerous program evaluation studies and organizational and community development strategic planning sessions.

Dr. Zollinger's primary research interests include community and economic development, public health and wellness programming, human dimensions of wildlife management, and environment and natural resources sociology. He has secured over $2.5 million in funding for applied research and planning projects, with one of the most notable being the statewide 2005 Kansas Prosperity Summit research and planning process on behalf of the Kansas Department of Commerce and partner state agencies, culminating in an economic development plan issued by Governor Kathleen Sebelius. His publications have appeared in journals such as Rural Sociology, Journal of the Community Development Society, Research in Community Sociology, Economic Development Quarterly, Complementary Health Practice Review, the Online Journal of Rural Research and Policy, and eJournal of Public Affairs, as well as a book chapter in Mad About Wildlife. Key publications include "Factors Influencing Farmers' Expectations to Sell Agricultural Land for Non-Agricultural Uses" (Rural Sociology, 2002), "Pursuing Rural Community Development in Resource-Dependent Areas: Obstacles and Opportunities" (Research in Community Sociology, 1997), "Determinants of the Use of Four Categories of Complementary and Alternative Medicine" (Complementary Health Practice Review, 2006), and "College Student Food Insecurity and Awareness and Use of Supports: Recent Findings from a Survey of Students at a Mid-Sized State Comprehensive University in Kansas" (eJournal of Public Affairs, 2018). He co-authors the annual Kansas Speaks statewide public opinion surveys. Dr. Zollinger received the Rural Sociological Society's Dissertation Award in 1997. He teaches courses in social statistics, research methods, demography, and community development.