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John Christopher Haddox
Associate Professor, School of Design and Community Development
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John Christopher 'Chris' Haddox, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Sustainable Design at West Virginia University where his teaching efforts revolve around a major and minor in Sustainable Design that are focused on the built environment.  His courses draw students from across the university who wish to broaden their thinking about the development and management of our communities.

His current research interest is focused on folk music-based cultural heritage tourism in southern West Virginia, and community-engaged songwriting.  He has also published in the area of evidence-based design of rural healthcare facilities.  

Haddox has served as principal investigator (PI) or Co-PI on $312,000 in funded research and outreach at West Virginia University.

Prior to his work at WVU, he spent nearly 10 years as the first full-time executive director of Mon County Habitat for Humanity. Under his leadership, the organization grew from one half-time director to a paid staff of eight that managed a volunteer staff of 40-50 at any given point in time. Haddox created a diverse portfolio of partnerships with entities such as Federal Home Loan Banks of Pittsburgh and Cincinnati, the Benedum Foundation, the WV Housing Development Fund, WV Department of Environmental Protection, Hazel Ruby McQuain Charitable Trust, in addition to developing a strong local contributor base to allow the development of $3,645,000 in new housing projects. He also established the ReStore—a recycled building materials enterprise whose profits help offset the administrative costs associated with the day to day housing operations.

Realizing that WV Habitat Affiliates reflected a broad range of organizational capacity, Haddox worked with fellow Directors to create a statewide umbrella organization, Habitat for Humanity of West Virginia, that continues to assist Habitat affiliates across the state with a variety of resource development and training. He was instrumental in securing the initial funding and staffing for that organization.

Haddox was also a long-standing member of the Board of Directors of Green Advantage®, a national, ANSI Accredited third party environmental certification program, and was the original Chair of the Woodburn School Redevelopment Commission with the City of Morgantown, where he served for 3 terms.  

Select Publications

  1. Haddox JC, Jiang S. (2020). The Virtual Shelf: A pilot study on self-selected imagery displays and the inpatient experience in a cancer treatment setting. 2020;5(1):240–249.  
  2. Haddox, John C. (2019). Empowering Youth to Engage in Social Discourse Through Place-Based Songwriting. Cultural Studies ó Critical Methodologies. DOI: 10.1177/1532708619829786 
  3. Kurowski-Burt, A., & Haddox, John C. (2018). Barriers to Healthcare Participation in Persons with Disabilities in Appalachia: A Qualitative Pilot Study. Health Environments Research & Design Journal, 11(4), 95–107. 
  4. Haddox, John C. (2017). The Songs and Stories of Scotts Run. Cultural Studies ó Critical Methodologies. DOI: 10.1177/1532708617742406 
  5. Haddox, John C. (2017). Impact of Design on Patient Participation in Healthcare in a Rural Health Clinic in Appalachia: A Qualitative Pilot Study. Health Environments Research and Design Journal, 2(1), 31-39. 
  6. Miller, Jordan Elliott and Haddox, Chris (2019) "Accessible Design in Rural Health Care: Usability Profile of Outpatient Health Care Facilities in Rural West Virginia," Marshall Journal of Medicine: Vol. 5: Iss. 4, Article 9. DOI: 10.33470/2379-9536.1251

Book Chapters

  1. Haddox, John C.; Place-based Songwriting; In the textbook Transformative Visions in Qualitative Inquiry; Section III: Artistic Transformation; Denzin, N., and Giardina, M; ISBN 9781032183176; May 6, 2022, Routledge.

Oral Peer Reviewed Conference Presentations

  1. Haddox, John C., & Burt, Amy. Barriers to Health Care Participation in Disabled Populations in Appalachia. International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry, May, 2017.
  2. Haddox, John C. Validating the Existence and Contributions of a Marginalized Appalachian Community in Song: Eleanor’s Hope/Forgotten Past. International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry, May, 2017.
  3. Haddox, John C., Impact of Facility on Patient Participation in Elderly Patients of an Appalachian Rural Health Center, National Rural Health Association Annual Conference, May, 2016
  4. Haddox, John C., Songwriting as Qualitative Research Workshop. International Congress for Qualitative Inquiry, 2021, 2022, 2023

Above you'll see tabs for these 2 pages that represent some of my music-based scholarship:  

1.  Songs and Stories of Scotts Run

2.  Folk Music of the Southern West Virginia Coalfields

You can reach me at chris.haddox@mail.wvu.edu