Business Meeting

Election of the Executive Committee

I am pleased to present the candidates for the ISSSS Executive Committee, who informed me of their intent to run by the deadline of August 15.  As you can see, I received multiple nominations for only 1 office, Secretary.  We will hold an electronic election prior to our virtual gathering in early November. I would encourage all I4S members to vote, even in the uncontested elections, to give our nominees our vote of confidence. Thanks to all who placed themselves in nomination!! I also wish to thank those who are leaving office at our upcoming Conference for their dedicated service on behalf of the Society: Treasurer Mark Popovich, Advisors Diane Montgomery and Amanda Wolf, Secretary Brandy Walker, and Immediate Past President Stephen Jeffares. 

Dr James C. Rhoads Jr., outgoing president.

Candidates

PRESIDENT

Raffaele Zanoli 

Prof. Raffaele Zanoli (MA, PhD. ORCID: 0000-0002-7108-397X) is Professor of Agricultural Economics at the Università Polietcnica delle Marche (UNIVPM), Italy and a senior principalresearch scientist with 28 years’ experience primarily related to the economics and market analyses of the organic food sector. 

He is professor of Food Marketing & Management (MSc Food & Beverage Innovation & Management), Supply Chain and Channel Management (MSc Managerial Engineering), and RealEstate Appraisal and Evaluation. He is member of the Ph Programme on Agricultural, Food andEnvironmental Sciences. He has been involved in more than 15 international RTD projects, mostly EU-funded. He has been the coordinator of the 7th FP RTD project “Data network for better European organic market information” (OrganicDatanetwork), running from 2012 to 2014. He has been co-ordinator of the SREN-ESCORENA working group on “Research methodologies in organic farming” established by FAO Regional Office for Europe (REU) in 1998. 

He is founder and currently president of the Italian Research Association on Organic Farming (GRAB-IT) and was member of the Board of the Italian Society of Agricultural Economics (SIDEA). He is also member of the European Association of Agricultural Economics, the Italian Society of Agro-Food Economics (SIEA) and the Interuniversity Consortium of Marine Sciences (CONISMA). He is currently member of the Board of the International Society for Organic Agriculture Research (ISOFAR). 

He is in member of the Editorial Board of Organic Agriculture (Springer Open) and regular reviewer for Food Policy, Food Quality & Preference, Ecological Economics, British Food Journal.He has published more than 130 scientific papers, of which 61 indexed in Scopus. Scopus H-Index:16. 

His discovery of Q Methodology and related studies of subjectivity is relatively recent and dates back to 2009. His first participation to a Q Conference was in 2011, when he also became member of I4S. Together with Simona Naspetti and Serena Mandolesi, has since performed a dozen Q studies in different disciplines (from agriculture to landscape and visual arts) of which 4 were published in indexed journals. 

Within the new Executive Committee, he will offer his expertise with launching international indexed journals, and will do his best to increase food quality and quantity at (non-virtual) Conferences (lol). 

VICE-PRESIDENT

Helen Mason 

Helen Mason is Professor of Health Economics at Glasgow Caledonian University. Over the past 15 years Q methodology has enabled me to address my research topic of interest, to understand the views of the general public and patients on various aspects related to the provision of health care.  This has led to publications in a range of clinical, health policy and health economics journals as well as in Operant Subjectivity. This research has been supported by a number of competitive research grants from major funders including the Economic and Social Research Council, the National Institute for Health Research in the UK and the European Commission.   

I joined ISSSS in 2006 and in 2017 was elected as the Vice President, the position I run for again in 2020.  The Vice President acts as the scientific chair for the annual Q conference, a position I now have significant experience in.  I acted as the programme chair for the 2019 conference in Naples and the programme co-chair in 2017 in Glasgow where I was also a member of the wider organising committee. I have been involved with the Q conference since the Birmingham Conference in 2011 where I was involved in organising the programme alongside the conference host and Vice President and was part of the poster judging committee.  At the Amsterdam conference in 2013, I helped to deliver the introduction to Q methodology workshop.   

I also actively try to help promote the knowledge and use of Q methodology. Along with colleagues at GCU, I have developed a 2-day introductory workshop which has run for the past 2 years with participants from across the UK, Europe and the US. In addition, I have delivered a number of shorter ad hoc training sessions for the Scottish Graduate Summer School, at local universities and for policy researchers in Scottish Government.  

TREASURER

John B. Nicholas 

Dr. John B. Nicholas spent seven years of years working as an electrical/electronic engineer before returning to school to complete his graduate degrees. He is currently a Professor of Computer Information Systems (CIS), he has served as the Program Lead Faculty and he is the co-founder of the CIS Cybersecurity Degree Track at The University of Akron. He has served as the Chair of the Faculty Senate Athletic Committee and as the UA representative to the Coalition of Intercollegiate Athletics.  

Dr. Nicholas served as Secretary of ISSSS from 2009-2014 and as the Managing Editor of, editorial board of, and as a reviewer for Operant Subjectivity from 2010-2014. He has been involved with Q-Methodology since 2007. He has also served ISSSS as the Conference Secretary and paper reviewer for the 2010 ISSSS Conference, and a paper reviewer several more conferences. His varied and continued service to ISSSS has provided him an understanding of the needs of ISSSS, a broad understanding of its membership and a strong sense of obligation to the mission of the society.  

He has used Q-Methodology in published research and presentations at a variety of academic conferences, covering a variety of research areas. He attended his first I4S conference n 2008 and he had been a regular contributor to the conferences since then. He has served on dissertation committees and provided assistance to many graduate students working on Q studies. His time as Managing Editor of Operant Subjectivity and involvement with others’ studies has provided him with a vast knowledge of Q-Methodology.   

More on Dr. Nicholas can be found here: https://uakron.academia.edu/JohnNicholas 

ADVISOR

Susan Ramlo 

I have been a professor of General Technology-Physics at The University of Akron since 1994. My involvement with I4S began in 2004.  Previously, I held the offices of Vice President / Conference Host (2008-9), President (2009-10), Past-President (2010-11), and Advisor (2011-2017).  Last year I was the Guest Editor for a special issue of Operant Subjectivity: The International Journal for Q Methodology on Concourse Development and Selecting Q-samples,  Previously, I was on the editorial board of OS. I have led Q workshops at I4S conferences and others. My YouTube channel is dedicated to assisting researchers interested in Q methodology (Sue-Z Q).  My publications include 1 book chapter (2010), with three more in process (all having to do with Q), and about 50 journal articles.  Most of my 100+ professional presentations dealt with Q.   

SECRETARY

Elizabeth Albright 

Dr. Elizabeth Albright is Assistant Professor of Psychology at Langston University. My first experience with Q methodology was participation in a study conducted by a fellow graduate student.  Since that time, I have completed 5 Q studies with topics ranging from preschool science interests to emotionality and resiliency in university students.  I have presented several times at the Q conferences and have published in Operant Subjectivity.  I believe that I am an excellent fit for the role of secretary of this organization.  

I appreciate your consideration. 

Stéphanie Gauttier 

Stéphanie Gauttier is Assistant Professor at Grenoble Ecole de Management (France). Stéphanie’s research focuses on understanding what drives individual’s perception of technology as ethical to inform technological design and regulation. From the methodological perspective, Stéphanie explores the relation between Q and phenomenology. This was the object of paper for which Stéphanie received the Donald J Brenner award in 2019. Stéphanie conducted her first Q study in 2010 and defended the first thesis in France in which all empirical studies used Q methodology in 2017. She has since been involved in numerous Q studies, including 2 international ones, and received 2 European Grants for projects using Q methodology.