Biography

Nan Crouter is the Raymond E. and Erin Stuart Schultz Dean of the College of Health and Human Development at Penn State University. Her college encompasses eight academic units (Biobehavioral Health, Communication Sciences and Disorders, Health Policy and Administration, Hospitality Management, Human Development and Family Studies, Kinesiology, Nutritional Sciences, and Recreation Park and Tourism Management) and five interdisciplinary research centers (Center for Healthy Aging, Center for Childhood Obesity Research, Center for Health Care Policy Research, the Methodology Center, and the Edna Bennett Pierce Prevention Research Center) and serves over 4300 undergraduate majors and 300 graduate students. Faculty members in the college garner over $60 million annually in external grants. Prior to becoming dean in 2007, Nan served as the director of Penn State’s Social Science Research Institute, a university-wide organization that supports interdisciplinary, collaborative research in the social sciences through co-funding faculty lines, providing opportunities for seed grants, offering grant writing workshops, and creating shared infrastructure (e.g., Survey Research Center; Social, Life, and Engineering Sciences Imaging Center). Nan has been on the Penn State faculty since 1981. Her research has focused on the interconnections between parents' work, family processes, and family members' health and well-being. Funded by the National Institute for Child Health and Human Development, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and the W.T. Grant Foundation, her research has focused on a variety of different populations and has been characterized by longitudinal designs and within-family comparisons (e.g., mothers vs. fathers, brothers vs. sisters). One line of industry-specific research has examined the work-family interface for managers and employees in the hotel industry. The Kellogg fellowship fuelled Nan’s interest in service. She served for 19 years on the board of directors of the Christian Children’s Fund (CCF), now ChildFund International, including serving as chair from 2005-2006. Nan has received several awards at Penn State including the 1999 President’s Award for Excellence in the Integration of Research, Teaching, and Service and the 2006 Faculty Scholar Medal for Outstanding Achievement in the Social and Behavioral Sciences. She and her husband, Bill Tolan, have two grown children.