Alumni: Where are they? | Penn State College of Health and Human Development

Graduate Program Alumni: Where are they?

Students who earn doctorates in Human Development and Family Studies at Penn State enter a range of academic and non-academic careers. Many become professors at top research universities or at smaller, more teaching-orientated institutions. Others go into primarily research career tracks either at research institutes or universities. Alumni also have careers in government organizations, hospitals, foundations, and non-profit organizations.

Research Universities

HDFS graduate alumni work as tenure-line and research faculty at more than 80 universities and colleges, including:

Duke University
Brigham Young University
Ohio State University
Columbia University
University of Florida
University of California Davis
Seoul National University
Max Planck Institute
University of Hong Kong
Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile

At Penn State, you will gain experience working with multiple faculty. You rarely will work only with your adviser, because faculty have broad social networks, providing the opportunity to collaborate with faculty in other departments and outside of Penn State.

—Soomi Lee, Ph.D., 2015

Teaching-oriented Universities

HDFS graduate alumni work as tenure-line faculty at over 25 universities and colleges across the United States.

Research Institutes

HDFS graduate alumni work at research institutes across the United States, including Mathematica Policy Research, Childtrends, RTI International, Search Institute, and International Food Policy.

Other Employers

HDFS graduate alumni work at a variety of organizations, including the National Institutes of Health, Centers for Disease Control, Institute of Medicine, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Alumni News

Recent new jobs, promotions, awards, books, and other accomplishments of our alumni. Learn about where our alumni are now and read about their successes.