George Kaiser Family Foundation endowed chairs announced for Human Sciences

Monday, August 22, 2016

The College of Human Sciences has named three George Kaiser Family Foundation Endowed Chairs for the Tulsa area.  They are faculty members in the Department of Human Development and Family Science on the OSU-Tulsa campus.

The chairs in Child Development, Child and Family Resilience, and Family and Community Policy support the HDFS mission of conducting applied interdisciplinary scholarship focused on reducing risk and promoting resilience within individuals and families across cultures and generations. The appointments include translating research into programs to be used by Cooperative Extension education that will improve the quality life for families in Tulsa and Oklahoma.

Amanda Sheffield Morris has been named the George Kaiser Family Foundation Endowed Chair in Child Development. Morris conducts research and teaches in the HDFS department at OSU-Tulsa. Her research focuses on children’s social and emotional development among low-income children and families. She has developed programs that emphasize parenting as a point of intervention.

As the GKFF Chair, Morris’s research will promote physical, social, emotional and cognitive development in children who live in adverse environments or challenging conditions. 

Ronald B. Cox, Jr. has been named the GKFF Chair in Child and Family Resilience. Cox is a prevention scientist who serves in the human development and family science department as an associate professor and family life specialist for Oklahoma Cooperative Extension. He also serves as the associate director of community engagement for the Center for Family Resilience at OSU-Tulsa.

By encouraging positive parenting and parental involvement in school, Cox will foster resilience among families in Tulsa through positive peer associations and programs that increase academic achievement and reduce negative child outcomes. 

The GKFF Endowed Chair in Family and Community Policy is Mike Stout.  Stout has been an associate professor in sociology at Missouri State University. His community-based research is focused on economic development, increasing civic engagement and examining racial disparities.

With an emphasis on families, he has studied the causes, symptoms and policy solutions to high poverty rates.  Stout will conduct research and develop programs that will promote well being among Oklahoma families and communities. 

GKFF is a charitable organization dedicated to breaking the cycle of poverty through investments in early childhood education, community health, social services and civic enhancement. Based in Tulsa, GKFF develops projects in conjunction with direct service organizations to serve the Tulsa area population.