Dr. Van Willigen earned her BA from Ithaca College in upstate New York and her MA and PhD in Sociology from The Ohio State University. She then spent 19 years as a faculty member at East Carolina University in Greenville NC. During that period she served as Undergraduate Director, Women’s Studies Director, Interim Chair, and Associate Dean. She joined the faculty at Georgia Southern University in 2015 as Professor and Chair. She chose to step back to a faculty position after 5 years as chair. Her research and teaching interests lay at the intersections of gender, sexuality, mental/physical health, and the sociology of education.