Emilio Parrado Named Thomas Chair by Penn Arts and Sciences

Dean Steven J. Fluharty is pleased to name Emilio A. Parrado the Dorothy Swaine Thomas Professor of Sociology in Penn Arts and Sciences.

Parrado is a distinguished scholar of demography and international migration. His research is focused on issues of Western hemisphere migration; Latino immigrants’ adaptation in the United States; and issues of health, fertility, education, and economic wellbeing among populations in Mexico and in several South American countries, as well as among immigrants in the U.S.  He is the author of more than 40 refereed articles in leading journals, and his work has been supported by several major grants, including the National Institute of Health and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

Parrado is an outstanding citizen and leader of his scholarly communities. He currently serves as chair of the Department of Sociology, and he has served as the director of the Latin American and Latino Studies Program and the associate director of the Population Studies Center, as well as serving on the Executive Committee of the Penn Program on Democracy, Citizenship, and Constitutionalism; the Penn Arts and Sciences Dean’s Council on Diversity; and the Faculty Advisory Board of the Netter Center for Community Partnerships. 

In 1993, an anonymous donor created this chair in honor of Dr. Dorothy Swaine Thomas. Dorothy Swaine Thomas was one of the most successful sociologists of her generation. She was the first woman professor in the Wharton School, the first woman board member of the Social Science Research Council, and the first woman elected president of the American Sociological Association. When she retired in 1970, Penn gave her an honorary doctorate for her influential work in the field of demography.