Mary Virnoche

Mary Virnoche is a Professor and Graduate Coordinator in the Department of Sociology at California Polytechnic State University, Humboldt. Her work focuses on inclusive student success in higher education, qualitative methods, and applied sociology. She holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Colorado at Boulder (1999).

Dr. Virnoche has held significant leadership roles, including serving on the Academic Senate of the CSU and its Justice, Equity, Diversity, & Inclusion Committee. Previously, she was the Cal Poly Humboldt General Faculty President and Senate Chair. She has also been a California Education Policy Fellow (2019-2020) and a Women's Research and Educational Institute Congressional Fellow in Washington, D.C., where she worked on policy related to gender, work, and housing.

Her teaching includes courses such as SOC 372 Proseminar, SOC 472 Graduate School Planning, SOC 410 Contemporary Theory, and SOC 584 Qualitative Methods. Her research emphasizes governance and policy-making through an equity lens, reflecting her commitment to institutionalizing campus diversity and community success.

Outside academia, Dr. Virnoche is a mother of two adult sons and an advocate for first-generation college students, drawing from her own background as a first-generation student from a small Wisconsin town.