Human Development & Family Studies | Michigan State University

Dawn A. Contreras, Ph.D., is the Director of Michigan State University Extension's Health and Nutrition Institute at Michigan State University.  Dr. Contreras has taught various courses for the department, including undergraduate and graduate courses in program design, administration and management of family and community service organizations, and parent education.  Contreras' major areas of funded research include co-parenting within diverse families, community-based approaches to nutrition education, healthy weight, and health promotion, and immunization education. 

Hiram E. Fitzgerald, Ph.D., is associate provost for university outreach and engagement, university distinguished professor of psychology, and adjunct university distinguished professor of human development and family studies at Michigan State University. He is also adjunct professor of psychiatry at the University of Michigan Medical School. Fitzgerald is President of the National Outreach Scholarship Conference, is a member of the Executive Committee of the Association of Land Grant and Public Universities' Council on Engagement and Outreach, chairs the Committee on Institutional Cooperation's Committee on Engagement,  is actively involved with the Campus to Campus Partnerships (MSU & HBCU Faculty Development Network), and was a member of the Carnegie Foundation's task force on Community Engagement. He is past president and executive director of the Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health and was executive director of the World Association for Infant Mental Health (1992-2008).

Fitzgerald has been associated with the Michigan Longitudinal Study of Family Risk for Alcoholism over the Life Course for 26 years, is a member of the Steering Committee of the Early Head Start national evaluation research consortium group, chairs the MSU Weba Anung research team monitoring work force development and early childhood education in partnership with the Intertribal Council of Michigan, is scientific advisor to the American Indian/Alaska Native Head Start Research Center at the University of Colorado, Denver, and is a member of a variety of interdisciplinary research teams focusing on evaluation of community-based prevention programs. Fitzgerald's major areas of funded research include the study of infant and family development in community contexts, the impact of fathers on early child development, implementation of systemic community models of organizational process and change, the etiology of alcoholism, the digital divide and youth access to technologies, and broad issues related to the scholarship of engagement. He has published over 470 scholarly works, including 170 peer reviewed articles, 72 chapters, and 66 books. He is editor of the Infant Mental Health Journal and Associate Editor of the Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement. Fitzgerald has received numerous awards, including the ZERO TO THREE Dolley Madison Award for Outstanding Lifetime Contributions to the Development and Well Being of Very Young Children, and is one of two recipients of the World Association for Infant Mental Health's Honorary President designation.

We are delighted that Jin-Suk Lee, Ph.D. has joined us this year as a Visiting Scholar from South Korea. Dr. Lee is an Assistant Professor at Chonbuk National University in the Department of Child Studies. She received her Ph.D. in Child Development in 2001 from Kyung-Hee University. Her dissertation was titled “Preschool children’s representation of attachment: Associations with teacher-child relationship and social competence.” Her master’s degree is in Child and Family Studies from Seoul National University with her thesis on “A study of the relative power perceived by husbands and wives.” Dr. Lee has published extensively and received grant support for her research. Her research interests include the impact of cultural diversity, poverty, and parenting on the social-emotional development of young children. She also has strong interests in intervention and prevention programs that focus on problems in children’s social-emotional development. Dr. Lee has grant funding for her one-year research sabbatical. Using an attachment perspective, she is conducting a study in the U.S. on Korean high school students who are studying in the U.S. Dr. Lee came to work with Dr. Luster and had started working with him just before his untimely death in March. Dr. Desiree Qin who also has strong research interests in immigration and adolescence has agreed to host Dr. Lee.

Dr. Lee is living in Okemos with her two children. In addition to her research, Dr. Lee is determined to see the U.S., starting with driving to Chicago for the weekend. Please join us in welcoming Dr. Lee. She is a delightful addition to our faculty and will be with us through February 2010. Her office is in Room 6, Human Ecology.

Dr. Chong-Hee Yoon, Professor of Social Work at Dongduk Women's University in Seoul, Korea, has been in residence as a visiting scholar during the Spring, 2010. Dr. Yoon obtained her Ph.D. in Family Ecology at MSU in 1986. She has had a distinguished career as a scholar and educator, including serving as Department Chair and Dean at Dongduk University. Dr. Yoon came back to Michigan State to continue her long-time research collaboration with Dr. Lawrence Schiamberg, who served as Dr. Yoon's major professor for her doctorate.