Radford University
Current Leadership
CSCR Director
Morgan Montañez, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor of Sociology and Director of the Center for Social and Cultural Research (CSCR). Montañez’s research focuses on rural poverty, particularly access to aid programs and healthcare. She received her Ph.D. from Washington State University, where she also worked as a Project Manager at the Social and Economic Sciences Research Center.
Montañez is an active member of the Rural Sociological Society, where she serves on several committees, and has conducted research in New Mexico, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Virginia. Her current research includes projects in Buchanan, Radford, and Pulaski Counties examining access to aid programs and healthcare, as well as work with the Council of Community Services using Virginia 211 intake data to identify unmet service needs and map underserved areas across the Commonwealth.
She has published in Rural Sociology (twice), Journal of Rural Studies, and the Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health. Her forthcoming book with Bloomsbury Academic, Built to Exclude: Structural Racism and Inaccessibility in Taos County, New Mexico, will be released in Spring 2027. Her work through the Center for Social and Cultural Research was recognized with Radford University’s OURS Outstanding Mentor Award in Spring 2026, a career-level distinction recognizing excellence in undergraduate research mentorship. She is one of the Council of Undergraduate Research - Scholars Transforming Through Research 2026-2027 cohort members taking a team of four undergraduate students from the CSCR through the program and to Washington, DC in Spring 2027.
Originally from rural Colorado, Montañez is deeply committed to raising awareness of the challenges facing rural America.
Montañez welcomes opportunities for new partnerships across Virginia and encourages community organizations and faculty interested in collaborative research to reach out to learn how the CSCR may be able to work with them. See Montañez's resume here.
Graduate Research Assistant
Paige Dickerhoof is a second-year graduate student in the Industrial/Organizational Psychology Master's program. Paige currently serves as the CSCR Graduate Assistant and Project Manager where she is leading a branch of the Virginia 211 analysis with a team of 4 undergraduate student researcher to examine demographic and spatial trends in mental healthcare related calls in 2024.
Lead Research Assistant
Therese Root is a junior majoring in Sociology and Political Science who has worked in the CSCR for a year and a half, including working with Dr. Montañez in Summer 2026 on the Buchanan County Study. She is currently working on a publication from her work with the Virginia 211 dataset on Utility Usage and datacenter presence throughout the state—expected submission winter 2026-2027. Therese does ArcGIS Mapping, data management, and literature review management along with transcription, participant observation and recruitment, and interviewing.
Lead Research Assistant
Isaiah Moore has been with the CSCR since Fall 2025 and is applying to graduate programs in Sociology this winter. He has worked on the Radford Housing Project—developing a codebook, writing an IRB, and presenting this work at Wicked Festival, Winter Card, and at the Southwest Social Science Association conference in Spring 2026; working with the Rural Sociological Society’s Historian Julie Zimmerman on their Oral History project, and with Dr. Montañez analyzing data from Taos, County New Mexico around substance abuse and policy impact following the COVID-19 pandemic.