Director of the Military Family Research Institute (MFRI) Shelley MacDermid Wadsworth, M.B.A., Ph.D., has been recognized by the Work and Family Researchers Network (WFRN) as one of the recipients of its 2024 WFRN Lifetime Achievement Award.
The award was presented to MacDermid Wadsworth on Friday, June 21, during the 7th WFRN Biennial Conference. MacDermid Wadsworth received the award alongside co-recipient Jeffrey Greenhaus.
According to the WFRN, the Lifetime Achievement Award recognizes extraordinary scholars who have made enduring contributions to the work-family community. The award is nomination-based, and recipients are selected in consideration of three criteria: volume of contributions in consideration of the discipline, impact of contributions to the work-family community and enduring commitment to the work-family community.
Much of MacDermid Wadsworth’s work has focused on military families, and has been conducted through MFRI, where she is a founder. Her nominator, Stephen Sweet, said that her “contributions to [the field of military family research] have been expansive, innovative in their direction and highly impactful.” To showcase the scale of her efforts, Sweet highlighted MacDermid Wadsworth and MFRI’s current work which focuses on the impact of military service and deployment on spouses, children and families.
Sweet also applauded MacDermid Wadsworth’s commitment to bringing visibility to other scholars and the researchers on her team, as well as her contributions to understanding work-family concerns in military careers.
MacDermid Wadsworth has been involved with the WFRN since its inception in 1997. In the nomination letter, Sweet outlined MacDermid Wadsworth’s contributions to the network over nearly three decades.
“Dr. Shelley MacDermid Wadsworth is highly deserving of recognition for lifetime achievements, having generated a remarkable volume of high impact research, having generated impressive amounts of funding that has supported the research of many scholars, having created and fostered wide-scale recognition of the very top research/researchers in the work-family field and having made enduring and important contributions to the functioning of the WFRN,” said Sweet.
MacDermid Wadsworth is a Distinguished Professor of Human Development and Family Science at Purdue University, where she directs MFRI, which she co-founded, and serves as Director Emerita of the Center for Families. Her primary research interest is the relationship between work conditions and family life, with special focus on military families. You can read more about MacDermid Wadsworth on her faculty page.
About MFRI
The Military Family Research Institute (MFRI) at Purdue University conducts research on issues that affect military and veteran families and works to shape policies, programs and practices that improve their well-being. Founded in 2000, MFRI envisions a diverse support community that understands the most pressing needs of military and veteran families. To achieve this, MFRI collaborates to create meaningful solutions for them. This internationally recognized organization is housed in Purdue University’s College of Health and Human Sciences, in the Department of Human Development and Family Science .
About WFRN
The Work Family Researchers Network’s mission is to facilitate virtual and face-to-face interaction among academic work and family researchers from a range of fields and engage the next generation of work and family scholars. Founded in 1997, the WFRN locates and generates reliable information that is of value to researchers, teachers, human resource professionals, policy advocates and caregivers.