Center for Families

Our Founding Director  
Susan J. Kontos was the founding director of the Center for Families in 1994. She had been on the Purdue University faculty since 1985 and previously held faculty positions at Pennsylvania State University and the University of Northern Colorado. Kontos passed away in 2003 following a nine-year battle with cancer.

Her numerous contributions to the field included editorial positions with the Early Childhood Research Quarterly, Young Children, Early Childhood Research and Practice, and Child and Youth Care Forum, and service on key state-level early childhood committees in Indiana.

A message from Susan Kontos: "The Center for Families reinforces my strong conviction that families provide the glue that holds society together. I hope my gift will encourage my fellow alumni and friends to support the center. I have learned a lot about the power of philanthropy and want to use my gift to expand that power to improve family life in the future."

 
Our Founding Donor
The Center for Families was founded in 1994 with a generous gift from Lorene McCormick Burkhart, alumna of the School of Consumer and Family Sciences at Purdue. According to Burkhart, when individuals make a gift, they express the values they care about.