Thomas Weirath

BS, 1964, Sociology, University of Akron

MA, 1967, Sociology, UW-Madison

PhD, 1975, Sociology, Organizational Behavior, UW-Madison

Tom says that his Sociology education has allowed him to move from an academic setting to public policy. If he had doubts about sociology’s relevance to analyzing real world problems, they quickly disappeared. What he found was that conceptual and theoretical concepts had practical value for organizing projects and planning. Likewise, content knowledge, data analysis and its interpretation serves as a particular value to organizations

Dr. Weirath is retired from a twenty-year career with the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association. His responsibilities included consulting with Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans around the country on issues of performance measurement such as operations, managed care and cost containment. His work included working with health plans to prepare them for accreditation by national organizations. Prior to that he worked in health planning with the state of Wisconsin where he was staff to a medical education review committee, a legislative oversight committee. He served also as an Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Tennessee- Knoxville where he taught courses on organizational behavior, sociology of health care and political sociology.

He now spends his time volunteering, reading, and writing. He has been active over the years working in an advisory capacity on several committees with the Wisconsin Alumni Association. He has also served on a committee at the Archdiocese of Chicago to develop an educational partnership with a school system in Nigeria. He currently is a member of a committee that focuses on issues of domestic violence.

Tom and his wife, Mary, spend time in both Chicago and Madison.