Baylor prof elected president of Texas Association of Family and Consumer Sciences

It sounds cliche to say that Baylor’s Department of Family and Consumer Sciences has professors who are among the leaders in their field, but it’s literally true in this instance. Dr. Janelle Walter, a Baylor F&CS professor for more than 30 years, took office June 1 as the elected president of the Texas Association of Family and Consumer Sciences, an industry group that represents professionals in the areas of nutrition science, family and consumer science education, interior design, fashion merchandising, fashion design, and child and family studies.

Family and Consumer Sciences is one of the lesser-known academic programs at Baylor, even though the subject was actually among the first classes taught at the fledgling university in Independence, Texas. Home economics classes were offered at Baylor as early as 1850, just five years after the institution’s chartering by the Republic of Texas. The Department of Home Economics was established in 1933 and changed its name to Family and Consumer Sciences in 1994.

Today, the department offers six professional degree programs: Child and Family Studies, Nutrition Sciences, Fashion Design, Fashion Merchandising, Interior Design, and General Family and Consumer Sciences. It also oversees two department programs: the Parker Design Center, which houses labs for fashion design and interior design, and the Piper Center for Family Studies and Child Development, which serves as a lab school for students in child and family studies.

Sic ’em, Dr. Walter and Baylor F&CS!