Jack Miner
Ralph Davenport Mershon Award
B.A. Political Science, 1994
Jack Miner has been serving the Ohio State community since his days as an undergraduate. Honored as an outstanding graduating senior in 1994, Miner continues his service to the university as an associate registrar for business and administration and a volunteer leader with the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Alumni Society.
“In many ways, Jack is the GLBT Alumni Society,” said Deborah Ballam, Ohio State associate provost and professor. “He certainly has provided much of the heart and soul that has made it so successful.”
Miner has served as president of the society since 2004. Last year the group received the Alumni Association’s Gold Star Award, ranking in the top 10 percent of all 55 active Ohio State societies. For the past four years, the society has won the Most Outstanding Alumni Society award.
As the 2001 chair of the society’s scholarship committee, Miner helped establish an endowment of $175,000. Today, the endowment has more than $250,000 in financial contributions and nearly $1 million total, including planned giving, making it the largest GLBT scholarship program in the country.
Miner also has been instrumental in the development of Ohio State’s Rainbow Graduation, which honors graduating GLBT students. Since Miner’s involvement, it has grown from a casual event at a local park to a formal ceremony at Page Hall, complete with keynote speaker.
Miner’s volunteer service goes well beyond the GLBT Alumni Society. For six years he served as faculty adviser to Mortar Board, the honor society of outstanding Ohio State seniors. He has also volunteered as a Homecoming Court interviewer and has served on the Outstanding Senior Selections Committee for more than 10 years. He is a founding member of the Pride Network, an organization for Ohio State’s GLBT faculty and staff, and still serves it in a leadership role.
Miner recently completed a two-year term as president of the board of Kaleidoscope, Columbus’ only gay youth center, which has grown from a small group meeting in a church basement to an active entity now located on High Street near the Wexner Center.
Other service organizations and committee involvements include the Alumni Association’s Outreach and Engagement Advisory Team, Buckeye-Thon Coordinating Committee, Athletic Council, Campus Campaign Council, Presidential Search Committee (for William E. Kirwan), and University Staff Advisory Committee.
Professionally, Miner is treasurer of the Ohio Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers and chair of the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers GLBT Caucus.
And Miner can be found among his peers on campus in yet another role, as a graduate student pursuing a master’s degree in public administration. Miner lives in Worthington with his partner, Brian Dozer, and their two teenaged sons.
“To know that in my lifetime I could go from being afraid of letting people know I am gay to being honored for letting people know I am gay is humbling,” Miner said. “It is a good reminder that the world is a different place—a more accepting place. Hopefully, in my own little way, in my own little difference, I have helped create that change.”
