Human Development & Family Studies | Michigan State University

Professor Emeritus Robert P. Boger received his B.A. in psychology from Cornell University and his Ph.D. in educational psychology from the University of Texas, Austin. He remained at the University of Texas as a member of the faculty in 1966. He joined Michigan State University in 1967 as an associate professor and director of MSU's Early Childhood Research Center, one of five national Head Start evaluation and research centers.

In 1970, Professor Boger became the founding director of the transdisciplinary Institute for Family and Child Study. He directed the IFCS until 1989. He was perhaps best known for his social support research models linking parents and teachers. His subsequent perinatal research into parent-to-parent transactional support for first-time parents (the Perinatal Positive Parenting Program) received the national Donna Stone Primary Prevention Award in 1984. Dr. Boger was president of the Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health and an active member of the SRCD and the American Psychological Association. He was named an American Council on Education Administration Fellow in 1972, interning on the president's staff at the University of Colorado, Boulder.

Dr. Boger believed his most important work was with his graduate students and he was recognized for his undergraduate teaching of the ecology of human development. He was the author of approximately 40 journal articles, monographs, and research reports, and was co-author or co-editor of six books.

Email: bogerr@msu.edu

Dr. Bristor was employed with the University from 1983 - Aug. 2003. While at MSU she taught a wide variety of courses including marriage and the family, child development, adolescent development and lifespan human development plus interpersonal relationships in the family, program evaluation, and family ecosystems. Formal teaching included a wide variety of audiences including undergraduate and graduate courses at MSU, graduate students in Masters Program in Port Huron, MI, and on the military base in Okinawa, Japan. Other teaching experiences include health care settings in the hospital to new mothers with home follow-up. She currently teaches healthy lifestyle changes to adults.She has several publications including articles on mother-infant interaction, ecosystemic family dynamics, marriage and family therapy as well as a textbook, Individuals and Family Systems in their Environments. Fourth Edition (2010). Dubuque, IA:  Kendall Hunt. Dr. Bristor has held several service positions including - State of Michigan Board of Marriage and Family Therapy, and President of Michigan Association for Marriage and Family Therapy. She currently enjoys the following retirement activities - enjoying family, friends and some travel; supervision of Marriage and Family Therapy Students in their required Internship; writing (1) a revision of the 4th Edition of the text: Individuals and Family Systems in their Environments and (2) Co authoring a book on fitness, nutrition, and health.

Eileen Earhart is a retired faculty member of the Family and Child Ecology (now HDFS) department. She was a member of the faculty at MSU from 1968 to 1984. She was named American Home Economics Association leader at the 75th annual conference in 1984. Throughout her career has published multiple articles and book chapters related to early childhood education research. She is currently residing in Oxford, Ohio.

Since retirement, Gail and I split our time between the Florida Keys in the Winter, and East Lansing and Drummond Island in the Summer and Fall. Taking care of these homes creates a list of things to do that is never ending. Puttering is good. I love to play golf year round, and enjoy fishing in the Keys. We spend time being with our grandkids, Sidney and Kayla, when schedules allow. What I enjoy most in retirement is doing what I want to do when I want to do it. We of course follow Spartan football and basketball no matter where we are.

My major areas of scholarship were marital enrichment and family paradigms. I was cited as a Land Grant pioneer in the area of marital enrichment and was an early innovator of the total on-line course at MSU. I also wrote a web text to complement the on-line course (Imig, David R. (2000; 2005). Interpersonal Relationships, Family Systems and Paradigms. Mozena Multimedia Publications: Venice, CA. In 2005 this course was awarded the SBC Competitive Award as the Most Outstanding On-line class at Michigan State university.

I received my B.S. in 1964 in Biological Sciences (MSU), M.A. in Family Studies in 1969 (MSU), and Ph.D. in 1971 in Family & Child Science (MSU) with an emphasis in Marriage and Family Therapy under Dr. Melcer. I held faculty appointments at MSU ( 1971-1976), Kansas State University (1976-1979), University of Missouri-Columbia (1979-1991), and returned to MSU in 1991 until retirement as Professor Emeritus in 2007.

Ms. Maddalena was an outreach academic specialist with Projects for Community Inclusion. Her work involved providing training and technical assistance to mental health agencies, vocational rehabilitation organizations and intermediate school districts with a focus on quality of life and inclusion of persons with disabilities in community settings. She participated in grant writing efforts, federal demonstration projects and management and monitoring of both federal and state grants.

Linda Nelson retired in 1994 and has been busy traveling and doing water color since then. She does a journal for each international trip with comments, photos, sketches, and watercolors which many people have enjoyed. She has been active in activities of the MSU Art Museum and is looking forward to the completion of the new museum on the site of the Paolucci Building where she began her MSU life as a Home Management House adviser in 1954. She has hostessed two of Elena Avila's four children as they attended East Lansing High School to improve their English during Argentina's summer vacations. She edits for Kappa Omicron Nu (KON) and some graduate students and faculty books just so people will not forget her dislike of etc. in manuscripts! She has recently completed a year as secretary for the Steering Committee of the Faculty Emeriti Association. In 2009 she was a volunteer at Camp Monet in the MSU Children's Garden. This is a 3-day day camp for 20 children from 7-12 years of age. She expects to help this group again in 2010. She recently attended the 60th reunion of her graduation from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia...lots of fun with good friends one of whom returned a letter Linda had written to her from Cuba in 1949.

Dorothy West came to Michigan from Pennsylvania in 1966 to begin graduate studies in Home Economics Teacher Education. Her BS degree is in Dietetics and MEd is in Teacher Education; both from the Pennsylvania State University. The Ph.D degree (1970) is from Michigan State University in Family Consumer Sciences Teacher Education and Family Resource Management. She was an Associate Professor in Home Economics Education (College of Education) and the Department of Family and Child Ecology, MSU, for most of the years between 1969 and 2005, instructing classes at various levels: undergraduates, graduates, off-campus, and international classes in the Netherlands, Okinawa and England. During the 1980’s she taught as a part-time professor at Central Michigan University and Youngstown State University in Ohio. She co-authored the Michigan Nutrition Secondary Teacher’s Curriculum Guide for the State Department of Education in 1986. She currently is the author of a High School Textbook, Teacher’s Resource Guide and computer available Test banks for Nutrition, Food, and Fitness: A Wellness Resource. The third edition, published by Goodheart-Wilcox is expected to be released in 2011. Over 53,000 copies have been sold to individuals and to Secondary Education Departments throughout the United States. From 2000 to 2005, she was appointed as Department Chairperson of Social Sciences at the LCC International University in Lithuania. And, in Early 2007, volunteered and taught middle school children at Kodai International School, Kodai Kanal, India. She played a major role in helping to prepare the International Baccalaureate (IB) Curriculum material for the middle school years. Membership and leadership activities with MAFCS and AAFCS have spanned the last 47 years.