Program Faculty

Human Development and Family Sciences

HDFS faculty are national leaders focused on interdisciplinary research and teaching across four signature areas:

  • Transitions Across the Life Course
  • Resilience and Health Across the Lifespan
  • Families in Sociocultural Contexts
  • Policies and Applications of Developmental and Family Science

 

 To contact faculty please go to their college profile pages, linked from their names.

Program Faculty

Teresa L. Ashford, M.S.
Instructor


Teresa's teaching is guided by social responsibility, compassion, real-world experiences, and love for the subject matter. Students engage in inquiry-based learning with interdisciplinary content to recognize the critical importance of gender and culture, diversity, and contemporary and global perspectives.

Marc Braverman, Ph.D.
Professor
Extension Family and Community Health Program

Currently accepting graduate students

Marc's research examines adolescent health; health promotion theory and health interventions; smoking prevention and control; tobacco policy; program evaluation design and analysis; and design and delivery of community programs.

Kelly Chandler, Ph.D.
Associate Professor


Kelly applies a work-family justice lens to study how working conditions, workplace culture, and work-family policies affect the health and daily lives of employees and their families. She also examines the implications of work for family processes, including emotional transmission, family routines, and parental socialization.

Tasha Galardi, Ph.D.
Senior Instructor
HDFS Undergraduate Program Director
HDFS Internship Coordinator


Tasha is committed to providing active learning opportunities in the classroom and enjoys getting to know her students as individuals. She has a particular interest in service and experiential learning, with an eye toward helping students pursue career goals that align with their strengths and passions.

John Geldhof, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
HDFS Doctoral Program Director


John's research focuses on the development of self-regulation across the lifespan and the relationship between intentional self-regulation and positive developmental outcomes (especially Positive Youth Development). He is also interested in quantitative methodology, both as a research domain and as a tool for optimizing his empirical research. As a substantive topic, his quantitative research focuses on latent variable and multilevel modeling techniques. He is also interested in the analysis of intensive repeated measures data.

Bridget Hatfield, Ph.D.
Associate Professor

Currently accepting graduate students

Bridget is interested in teacher- and parent-child relationships in early childhood, children’s stress and school readiness skills, quality of early childhood education, teacher professional development, & implications for policy.

Brianne Kothari, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
OSU-Cascades

Currently accepting graduate students

Brianne's research focuses on understanding the experiences and trajectories of at-risk populations as well as on designing, implementing and evaluating developmentally appropriate, family systems focused interventions.

Shannon Lipscomb, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
OSU-Cascades

Currently accepting graduate students

Shannon’s research identifies ways to promote resilience among young children, families, and early childhood teachers and providers.

Katherine (Kate) MacTavish, Ph.D.
Associate Professor

Currently accepting graduate students

Kate's research focuses on rural families and communities, community effects, family management strategies & child/youth development in risky rural contexts, rural housing, rural schools, poverty & community development.

Megan McClelland, Ph.D.
Professor
Katherine E. Smith Healthy Children and Families Professor, Hallie Ford Director for the Center for Healthy Children and Families

Currently accepting graduate students

Dr. McClelland’s research is broadly focused on optimizing children's development, especially as it relates to social and cognitive development and school success. In general, she is interested in the importance of children's self-regulation, executive function, and social competence for success in preschool, elementary school, and throughout the life-span. Her recent research has focused on developing measures of self-regulation and interventions to promote school readiness and success.

Kathleen McDonnell
Senior Instructor
Director of the OSU Child Development Center

Lori McGraw, Ph.D., MS
Senior Instructor II


Lori is interested in developing students’ intellectual and emotional capacities to be critical agents, who transform knowledge into action that is responsive to moral, social and political problems. She focuses on high impact teaching pedagogy; social justice, equity & inclusion; and excellence in online teaching.

Monica Olvera, Ph.D.
Senior Instructor


Monica is a passionate advocate for matters of social justice, diversity, equity, and inclusion, both within and outside the classroom. She strives to create an engaging and positive learning environment that is respectful of multiple learning styles. Monica is interested in transnational families, mothering practices among immigrant Latina women, and positive cultural identity.

Megan Pratt, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor (Practice)

Currently accepting graduate students

Megan's work focuses on understanding early learning at local, state, and national levels, with an emphasis on vulnerable populations. She investigates child care and early learning from the perspectives of the child, family, and workforce. Her work also examines how early learning in both formal (eg child care) and informal, community settings (eg libraries) can best support families with young children.

David Rothwell, MSW, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Barbara E. Knudson Endowed Chair in Family Policy

Currently accepting graduate students

David studies how the lives of children and families are affected by poverty and economic inequality. Current research focuses on understanding variations in poverty and family policy in rural America, Oregon, and across countries.

Richard A. Settersten, Jr., Ph.D.
University Distinguished Professor
Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs


Rick's research focuses on life course; age and aging; transitions; social relationships; historical experiences and social change; parenthood and family life; social policy.

Shauna Tominey, Ph.D.
Associate Professor

Currently accepting graduate students

Shauna's research focuses broadly on social and emotional learning (SEL) for children, youth, and adults. As a former practitioner and family services professional, I blend practical experience with research to develop and test programs focused on the intersections of SEL, identity, and racial/social justice and study how each can be supported for children, youth, and adults in the context of relationships at school, at home, and in the community.

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Associated Faculty Research Interests
Alan Acock, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus
Intergenerational relations, family structure, fathering, at risk families, & quantitative methods.
Carolyn Aldwin, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus
How psychosocial factors affect health, especially how individuals cope with stress. How personality, mental health, and physical health change across the lifespan. And factors which affect the rate of aging, as well as stress-related growth.
Mary Arnold, Ph.D.
Professor
4-H Youth Development Specialist
Positive youth development in applied settings with a focus on youth programs as developmental contexts that support thriving.
Sally Bowman, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus
Family Development Specialist
Geriatric mental health, depression, dementia, intergenerational relations and aging, welfare reform,welfare-to-work, family/school/community partnerships.
Karen Hooker, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus
Self and personality processes in understanding risk and resilience factors for optimal aging. This includes understanding the role of intergenerational relationships in fostering healthy attitudes towards aging.

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