From programs to practice, Purdue HDFS distinguished professor reflects on creating lasting change for families

Written By: Rebecca Hoffa, rhoffa@purdue.edu 

Shelley MacDermid Wadsworth(Photo provided)

At just 13 years old, Shelley MacDermid Wadsworth organized her first conference with the intent of helping enhance processes in her church. Now a distinguished professor in the Purdue University Department of Human Development and Family Science, MacDermid Wadsworth has focused her career on making a greater impact. 

With her research looking at the relationship between work and family life and the systems in which families operate, MacDermid Wadsworth’s work has shaped programs, policies and practices for individuals and families. She has also amplified her work as director of the Military Family Research Institute (MFRI) and former director of the Center for Families at Purdue. 

“I’ve always wanted to not just acquire knowledge but to put it to use somehow, to see it impact the people I had in mind who motivated me to do the work,” MacDermid Wadsworth said. “The center and the institute have been ways to do that: How can we mobilize knowledge for good? I want to be a good scientist and participate in all the ways we expect, but to me, that’s not enough. I have to be able to envision what it might mean and how it could be used to change programs, help families, or make that interface between work and family work better.”  

Shelley MacDermid Wadsworth speaks at a conference.(Photo provided)

MacDermid Wadsworth became interested in the balance between family life and workplace demands through her own childhood experiences. Her mom worked nights as a nurse to be able to be a homemaker during the day, and her father worked long hours as a tool and die maker and later a small business owner, sometimes even sleeping at the office. 

“I developed this conviction that people should be able to do what they need to do at work and at home without feeling like those two things are always conflicting with each other,” MacDermid Wadsworth said. “That has been the abiding passion of my science and my engagement.” 

In 2012, MacDermid Wadsworth was recognized in the first-ever class of Morrill Award recipients. The award, which is the highest honor bestowed upon a faculty member at Purdue, acknowledges excellence in research, teaching and engagement. 

“The creation of the Morrill Award was an important statement about the important contributions faculty can make to all the missions of the university and the ways they can embody the spirit of the land grant institution,” MacDermid Wadsworth said. “To be in that first class felt like such a validation of my work. It was so meaningful to me to be recognized in that way.” 

From expanding access to important programming for military families to stewarding the dream of the donors who developed the Center for Families, MacDermid Wadsworth is proud of the ways in which her work has made a difference, enabling individuals and families to thrive.  

“It’s often the case that my proudest accomplishments have to do with what my work has meant outside the academy, not just inside it,” MacDermid Wadsworth said. 

Shelley MacDermid Wadsworth stands with Lorene Burkhart, the Center for Families’ founding donor.(Photo provided)

MacDermid Wadsworth is currently leading a research project in MFRI called Operation Military Experience, which is looking at the experiences of families where a parent has been deployed to understand the impacts of military service on parents and children and evaluate the need for future support programs.  

In this endeavor, MacDermid Wadsworth shared that it has allowed for an opportunity to get undergraduate students involved in the research over the past few years, including 40 students collecting data this semester alone. 

“I have always involved — or tried to involve — students in everything that we do to help them think in a more sophisticated way about the fields that they’re thinking about entering,” MacDermid Wadsworth said. “You have the opportunity to influence students in lots and lots of ways, and you have no idea which things you say or do are going to be really consequential in their lives.”  

MacDermid Wadsworth also helped spearhead the College of Health and Human Sciences’ Health of the Forces initiative, which focuses on fostering research collaborations around health and well-being for military members, veterans and their families. The initiative awarded its first pilot grants in 2024.  

“I thought maybe the Health of the Forces idea could be a unifying framework, instead of having faculty across campus doing work in isolation as individual lines of effort or one-off projects, to make it clear that there is a critical mass of interest, focus and expertise, and maybe that could contribute to Purdue becoming an even more prominent leader in the military space,” MacDermid Wadsworth said. 

Shelley MacDermid Wadsworth poses for a photo at the 20th anniversary celebration of MFRI and the Center for Families with longtime donors Joyce Beery Miles and Bob Miles.(Photo provided)

Playing a pivotal role in shaping the discipline of work and family research, MacDermid Wadsworth organized the Center for Families’ Rosabeth Moss Kanter Award for Excellence in Work-Family Research. MacDermid Wadsworth also is a fellow of the National Council on Family Relations, where she was a founding member of a Feminism in Family Science section that works to pay attention to women’s perspectives when developing conclusions about how families are functioning. 

As she looks back on her career and the history of the work that means so much to her, she recognizes the myriads of small and large things that others have done throughout her career that have shaped the strides she’s made. 

“I am mindful that anything I’ve been able to do has been so much affected by people who have taken the time or trouble to reach out to me and invite me to do things, offer me feedback, agree to read something, offer encouragement or make a positive comment. Whatever I do is the result of a large community of effort,” MacDermid Wadsworth said, noting she feels especially privileged to have worked over the years with large numbers of highly dedicated and professional staff members, faculty colleagues, postdoctoral scholars and graduate students at both MFRI and the Center for Families.