Alumni Profiles
Alum Pearson Named VP for Partnership Affairs at UTB/TSC
David E. Pearson '79 (sociology) has been named Vice President for Partnership Affairs at University of Texas Brownsville/Texas Southmost College. With the university since 1997 as professor of sociology in the Behavioral Sciences Department, Pearson for the past two years has been president of the Academic Senate.
Of his new position Pearson says, “Frankly I can’t think of an instance where I’ve been more intrigued professionally, or more excited personally, than I am right now. What a privilege, what a marvelous opportunity, to serve this most exceptional institution of ours.”
The Vice President for Partnership Affairs works with the TSC Board of Trustees and serves as the liaison between the board and the administration. Pearson will oversee land acquisitions, budgets, elections, taxing matters and the projects under the $68 million bond package approved by voters in 2004. “Dr. Pearson is an excellent choice for this position," says President Juliet V. Garcia.."His work in the classroom with students provides him with a vision to help implement the important work of this office.”
Pearson has been an Administrative Fellow in the university’s leadership program, working in the TSC District Office, as well as chair of the committee that established the Dual Language Certification Program at UTB/TSC. For seven years, he was the host of Society Under Fire on KMBH-KHID FM, the local affiliate of National Public Radio. He is the author of numerous articles in the scientific, scholarly and popular presses, and two books with a third forthcoming.
His book, KAL 007: The Cover-up, advanced the argument that a great deal more happened to Korean Air Lines Flight 007. In 1983, the jumbo jet strayed off-course into Soviet airspace and was shot down, killing all aboard. Pearson. a key investigator, was featured in a series of articles, media appearances, and most recently, in the documentary, Secrets of the Black Box: Flight 007, on the History Channel. He has also written a book on military communications, The World Wide Military Command and Control System: Evolution and Effectiveness.
A magna cum laude graduate, Pearson earned his master's degree and PhD in Sociology from Yale University and was a post-doctoral fellow in International Security Studies at Ohio State University’s Mershon Center. He and his wife, Paloma, have three children.
February 27, 2007
