Human Development and Family Sciences

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

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 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
HDFS Undergraduate Program Director

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

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

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

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

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)

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

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.

Suzanne C. Segerstrom, PhD, MPH
Professor
Jo Anne Leonard Peterson Endowed Chair for Gerontology and Family Studies, Co-Director for the Center for Healthy Aging Research

Suzanne’s research addresses the interactions among psychological, cognitive, immunological, and physical health in older adults, especially involving self-regulation and repetitive thought. She uses longitudinal and longitudinal burst as well as quasi-experimental designs to answer research questions about these interactions. As such, she has particular interest and expertise in longitudinal data analysis and multilevel modeling, as well as the measurement properties of biomarkers such as diurnal cortisol.

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

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.