Ellen Hauser currently teaches courses in sociology, political science, women's and gender studies, and the Heritage program. She has developed the following new courses: Women and Politics, Working Women, Sociology of Women, Global Stratification, and Images in Africa. Her most recent publication is "Uganda Relations with Western Donors in the 1990s: What Impact on Democratization?" in Cambridge University Press's The Journal of Modern African Studies.

Dr. Hauser's international experience includes teaching at Nanjing University in Nanjing, China, for 18 months, conducting dissertation research with high-level government officials in Uganda, and participation on the official U.S. Election Observer Team monitoring the 1996 elections in Uganda. As a Diplomacy Fellow through the American Association for the Advancement of Science, she worked at the Center for Democracy and Governance at the United States Agency for International Development in Washington, D.C. Her duties there included work in Rwanda interviewing government officials and genocide survivors to propose a program for President Clinton to announce during his 1998 visit to Rwanda. Dr. Hauser organized and presided over meetings on the Great Lakes (Africa) Initiative for President Clinton's advisors. She also assisted the president's special advisor on U.S. assistance in international rule of law programs to organize efforts to allow the U.S. government to support democracy programs in China.

Stephen Lyng came to Carthage after more than 15 years as assistant and then associate professor of sociology at Virginia Commonwealth University. In addition to his nine-year tenure as director of the graduate program in sociology at VCU, he has taught at Union College and Florida Atlantic University.

He specializes in medical sociology, social theory, social psychology, sociology of risk and collective behavior. He has written and co-written sixteen published sociology articles, the most recent of which, "Drug Treatment Reform: The Politics of Collaboration," currently is under review with the Journal of Health, Policy, Politics, and Law. As an author, he has written "Holistic Health and Biomedical Medicine: A Countrysystem Analysis" (State University of New York Press, 1990). In 2002, he co-authored "Sociology and the Real World" (Rowman and Littlefield Publishers). He also served as editor for "Routledge's 2003 Edgework: The Sociology of Voluntary Risk Taking." Professor Lyng is a prolific speaker, having given more than 20 talks on sociology in the United States, Canada, and the U.K. He is the recipient of numerous research grants.

Prof. Lyng joined the Carthage faculty in 2004.

Rick Matthews taught for five years at Ohio University before arriving at Carthage. During his tenure, he received the Jeanette G. Grasselli Brown Teaching Award for the College of Arts and Sciences. He also was nominated for the University Professor Teaching Award.

Mr. Matthews specializes in criminology, specifically juvenile delinquency, criminal justice and corporate crime. His most recent publications have appeared in Homicide Studies, Sociological Focus, and Critical Criminology. His primary research interests include corporate crimes as well as the relationship between economic conditions and homicide rates.

Bill Miller has published articles on risk taking, gambling, juvenile delinquency and homicide, among other topics. His work has been published in a number of scholarly journals including The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Sciences, Sociological Focus and Homicide Studies. He has presented research at a variety of professional meetings, served as a reviewer for a number of academic journals ,and he currently serves on the board for Women and Children’s Horizons. His current research examines mixed martial arts fighting and poker. Dr. Miller earned his B.A. and M.A. from Ohio University, and his Ph.D. from the University of Nevada at Las Vegas. He joined the Carthage faculty in 2000.

Linda S. Noer is active in the Kenosha/Racine area utilizing her social work skills. In addition to her duties at Carthage, she has worked since 1982 as a licensed clinical social worker (LCSW) for Lutheran Social Services of Wisconsin. Noer has also worked with Children's Services Society of Wisconsin, served as a consultant with Parents Anonymous in Lexington, Mass., has been the temporary director of the Child Abuse and Neglect Project in Kenosha, a psychiatric caseworker and director of group work services at Washburn Child Guidance Center in Minneapolis, field instructor for College of St. Catherine, St. Paul and Instructor for Loyola University School of Social Work-Carthage. She continues to be active within the Lutheran church, as many of her activities focus on families and faith.

At present Noer's research interests are the use of literature to increase creative and critical thinking skills in students; family relationship issues, especially "fathering;" and Frank Lloyd Wright's architecture and its effect on work and family. She has presented professional papers at over 45 conferences in the United States and internationally (England, France, Costa Rica, Italy, and Japan). She was selected as a research fellow at the Lutheran Center for Social Change, appointed a member of the Women's Horizons Board, elected Treasurer of Wisconsin Council of Social Work Education, and serves on the Board for Loyola School of Social Work-Carthage.

She is a Diplomat of Clinical Social Work and a member of the Academy of Certified Social Workers. Her teaching responsibilities began at Carthage in 1974.

Wayne Luther Thompson is an expert in criminology and the sociology of religion. Most of his research looks at religion's effects on human behavior. He has published in the areas of church growth and decline and the religious behavior of baby boomers. He is currently the President-Elect of the Wisconsin Sociological Association. Professor Thompson's current research is The Social Ecology of Congregations Project, which provides research and planning information for congregations and examines the impact they have on their communities. Thompson joined the Carthage faculty in the fall term of 1998 as director of the Criminal Justice Program and associate professor of sociology. He came to Carthage from Concordia University in River Forest, Ill., where he was associate professor of sociology.