By Diana Meter | April 13, 2022

Diana Meter

The Human Development and Family Studies department has one of the largest research faculty in USU’s College of Education and Human Services. Our students get to know who we are and what we’re passionate about by taking our graduate and undergraduate classes. But after a couple of hard years of social distancing, online classes, and less time in person in our offices, we were feeling disconnected from each other and our students.

Then Professor and Graduate Coordinator Dr. Beth Fauth had an idea: A speed faculty showcase in which faculty have to present their research to their peers, students, and visiting prospective graduate students in three minutes using three slides or less. For anyone who has been to a faculty lecture, you’ll recognize that having professors present their work succinctly is a great challenge (kidding, but not kidding!)  

Dr. Kay Bradford organized and facilitated the speed showcase. Some people went over their three-minute limit and comically sped up to try to fit in the last few words (Dr. Ryan Seedall, we’re looking at you), and some were just on time, like Dr. Troy Beckert. There was a lot of laughter and it was fun to all be back together, giving us the opportunity to remember how diverse our research foci are, but also how well our goals and approaches tie us together.

Thank you also to Drs. Yoon Lee (Family Finance), Lisa Boyce, Julia Yan (Infancy and Child Development), Diana Meter, Tavis Dorsch (Adolescence), Yin Liu (Aging and Adult Development), Shawn Whiteman, and Aryn Dotterer (Marriage and Family Relations) for your participation in this event. Special shout out to the Adolescence research group for having the largest representation in the event! Our faculty make a great team.

If you are interested in learning more about our undergraduate and graduate degrees, or how to get involved with HDFS research, please feel free to reach out to any of our faculty, Undergraduate Academic Advisor Laura Holley, or Graduate Coordinator of Programs RaNae Wamsley.

Watch the Zoom recording here