Ray helps to coordinate undergraduate initiatives and academic services, including advising, student recruitment and retention, program assessment, awards and prizes, career exploration activities (e.g., internships), data collection and analysis, and alumni outreach. Ray also serves on the Undergraduate Teaching Committee and as the advisor for the OSU chapter of Phi Alpha Theta, transfer credit coordinator, advising liaison to the regional campuses, undergraduate newsletter editor, and academic advisor for honors history undergraduates. On occasion, he also teaches the Department’s internship course, as well as U.S. history surveys and upper-division courses in Ohio history and American religious and labor history.

His most recent publication, "The Origins of the Buckeye Nickname," appears in the Fall 2022 issue of Ohio History. In November 2021, WOSU Media aired a news story, "Buckeye Nickname Origin Story Called into Question," based on the research, and included an interview with Irwin in "Stories from the 19th Century" (original air date: April 6, 2023), an episode of WOSU's Columbus Neighborhoods television series.