Keefe, Dennis R. Ph.D.

Joined the Department of Family Ecology faculty in 1973 and retired from the Department of Family and Child Ecology in 2003.  I am very pleased now to be able to contribute to the website of the Department of Human Development and Family Studies.  My Ph.D. was in sociology (structure of social systems and the family as a consumer) from the University of Georgia where I was employed in the School of Home Economics as a consumer economist (1965-1972).  Earlier degrees included an MS in agricultural economics (emphasis on food consumption economics) at the University of Minnesota and a BA in economics and business from St. John's University, Collegeville, Minnesota.  My undergraduate teaching at MSU has been in the area of consumer issues and personal finance.  My graduate teaching included theoretical approaches to human resource development in the family as well as management and decision making in the family.  Research activities were largely funded through the MSU Agricultural Experiment Station and involved cooperative research with colleagues throughout the country on studies of family economic well-being and quality of life.  In Michigan my research focused on the the usage of energy by families, coping with poverty, and the role of family health in early head start success.  I also represented the college during the start-up years of the State of the State Survey (SOSS).  Because my interdisciplinary background matched the interdisciplinary interest of the College of Human Ecology my work at MSU was always very ecological.  Since retirement I have written a manuscript on a time based theoretical approach to human ecological systems.  I have also explored creative writing, poetry in particular.