HDFS Faculty
Full-time Faculty
Margaret S. Benson, assistant professor of human development and family studies, and program coordinator.
E-mail: enz@psu.edu
Phone: 949-5269
Office: 122 Hawthorn
Ph. D., 1990, Penn State University. Teaches courses in Child Development and Ethics. Has been coordinating the delivery of the degree since 1999. Research interests focus on quality early childhood care and education, emerging literacy, and children’s skills as narrators. Also directs the HDFS Study Abroad program.
Lee Ann De Reus, associate professor of human development and family studies and women’s studies.
E-mail: lad12@psu.edu
Phone: 949-5751
Office: 129J Smith
Ph.D., 1997, Purdue University. Teaches courses on Family Development, and Feminist Theory. Areas of interest/research: women's adult development including identity development, feminist and critical race theory, and liberation pedagogy. She has run the Orphanage Outreach program since its inception in 2001, and is now involved with a program that takes students to Tanzania to both study and work with social service agencies.
Lauren Jacobson-McConnell, instructor in human development and family studies
E-Mail: lpj100@psu.edu
Phone: 949-5333
Office 123 Hawthorn
Ph.D. 1993, Penn State University. Teaches adolescent development, methods, and interventions, and oversees internships. Areas of interest/research: adolescence, with interests in area of athletics and competence, diversity attitudes, service learning and effects of community service; also effects of and attitudes toward co-sleeping and breastfeeding.
Dan Lago, assistant professor of human development and family studies
E-mail: mailto:djl@psu.edu
Phone: 121 Hawthorn
Office: 949-5524
Ph.D., 1977, Penn State University. Teaches Adult development and aging, research methods and introduction to human development and family studies. Areas of interest/research: Applied issues in the delivery and evaluation of services to the elderly in community-based and long-term care settings, staff development issues, and the experience of family caregivers and consumers in working with providers of aging services
Jonathan R. Olson, assistant professor of human development and family studies
E-mail: mailto:jro10@psu.edu
Phone: 949-5783
Office: 128 Hawthorn
Ph.D. 2003, University of Wisconsin - Madison. Teaches courses on individual/family-based interventions and family policy. Areas of interest/research: identifying individual, family, and community predictors of the psychological, emotional, and behavioral well-being of children and adolescents; determining the effectiveness of various youth-focused prevention strategies.
Adjunct or Part-time Faculty
The following part-time faculty teach for us regularly
Anna Fleck, MSW, LSW; e-mail: amf162@psu.edu
Donna Gutshall, M. Ed; e-mail: djg27@psu.edu
Joy Himmel, D. Ed.; e-mail: jyh1@psu.edu
Les Weiss, MSW; e-mail: liw10@psu.edu
Lisa Williamson Covitch, MS; e-mail: lkw12@psu.edu
