Dr. Tonja Conerly serves as a full-time sociology professor at San Jacinto College South Campus. Classes taught include OER (open educational resources) and non-OER classes of Introduction to Sociology, Marriage and Family, Social Problems, Minority Studies, and Criminology. She teaches in the Honors Program and for dual credit students. She was granted the award of Lifetime Distinguished Faculty Member of Sociology.
During her tenure at San Jacinto College, she also had the opportunity to contribute to the College’s success as being appointed as the Achieving the Dream OER grant director from 2016-2019. Under this administrative position, she was instrumental in introducing OER to the college and saving students over $3 million in textbook costs. Since this time, she has served as a leader in the OER community on a city, state, national and global level.
Dr. Conerly is a speaker at many conferences, presented on webinars, and published articles on OER and how it brings equity to our students. In addition, she served on the faculty advisory board for Rice University OpenStax. In July 2018, she founded the Houston Area OER Consortium (HAOER), which consists of representatives from most colleges in the Houston area who network and find resources on a no cost or low-cost textbook affordability plan for students.
Other roles Dr. Conerly has served include:
- Community College Consortium OER: co-vice president EDI from 2016-2019 and currently she is serving as advisory emeritus
- Open Education Resources Conference Board of Directors: from 2020-present
- Senior contributing author to Rice University OpenStax – Intro to Sociology – 3rd edition which published fall 2021
Dr. Conerly continues to provide leadership at San Jacinto College by serving on numerous committees within the College including the districtwide distinguished faculty as a part-time faculty ambassador leader to oversee college ambassadors as they communicate information to our part-time faculty and keep them abreast of class management, and other resources throughout the college; districtwide service learning committee, and the districtwide honors steering committee.
