Features

Berkeleyan to head S.F.S.U. Public Research Institute

Staff
Wednesday April 17, 2002

SAN FRANCISCO - A veteran public policy researcher from Berkeley's renowned Public Health Institute has been named the new director of San Francisco State University's Public Research Institute (PRI). 

Richmond Annex resident James Wiley, vice president for research and evaluation at the Public Health Institute for the past three years, joins the faculty at S.F. State as both director of PRI and a professor in the department of sociology. 

S.F. State's Public Research Institute, which was established in 1984, provides policy research, data collection and analysis for businesses, government agencies and non-profit organizations throughout the Bay Area. 

"San Francisco State University is truly fortunate to have a leader such as James Wiley join its community. He is a leader who will make a huge difference in the research, teaching, learning and funding here in many different fields," said Joel J. Kassiola, dean of the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences at S.F. State. "I have been struck by Dr. Wiley's professionalism, energy, creativity and desire to come to our exciting multicultural campus. I consider it a real coup that we were able to recruit him and I look forward to Dr. Wiley's superlative accomplishments as director of PRI." 

Before becoming vice president at the Public Health Institute at Berkeley, Wiley was assistant director of the Survey Research Center at Berkeley for  

nearly 20 years. During that time, Wiley was co-principal investigator on the San Francisco Men's Health Study, a landmark study of the natural history of HIV infection in men who self-identified themselves as either gay or bisexual. 

Wiley, an expert in demography and social science research methods, has published widely on issues of method and statistics in social science research. He is also an expert on issues of substance abuse, aging, and social epidemiology of infectious and chronic diseases. He succeeds Michael Potepan, chair of economics, who had been acting director of PRI.