Department of Human Sciences and Design Finds Its Fit in Robbins College’s Mission of Human Flourishing

October 21, 2024
Mary Gibbs Jones

With Apparel Design and Product Development, Apparel Merchandising, Child and Family Studies, Interior Design, and Nutrition Sciences, the Department of Human Sciences and Design (HSD) may be the most programmatically diverse and unique unit of Baylor University’s Robbins College of Health and Human Sciences. But it's this variety of expertise that allows the Department to take an exceptional approach to human flourishing through research, interdisciplinary cooperation, and translational impact. 

Elise King, MID, MA, Interim Chair of HSD and Associate Professor of Interior Design, explains that when she considers the Department as a whole, she thinks about how all of its disciplines make an impact on things that people engage with daily, affecting—sometimes significantly—their health and well-being. This impact is seen in community engagement and teaching, but also through research, where experts in each area are able to focus specifically on improving health and community wellness. The translational efforts of each program are critical to HSD's mission and orient the Department's placement within Robbins College.

“What we do is at the heart of the community, family unit, and impacting people’s lives,” King says.

King emphasizes that, in HSD, upholding a Christian worldview means students learn to utilize their unique disciplines to make a positive impact on the communities they interact with. Graduates have the opportunity to actively showcase stewardship through the design of the physical environment, impacting what people wear, who people interact with, and the food that they eat.   

As Baylor elevates its research profile as a Research 1 (R1) university, King explains that HSD has been able to “take on bigger and bigger challenges and answer larger questions.” For example, Debra Harris, PhD, Professor of Interior Design, researches the design of healthcare facilities to showcase the benefits interior design can have on human flourishing. Leigh Greathouse, PhD, MPH, MS, RD, Associate Professor of Nutrition Sciences, is focused on cancer research, studying the relationships between an individual’s gut microbiome, nutrition, and chronic disease. Mickey Langlais, PhD, CFLE, Assistant Professor of Child and Family Studies, is seeking to understand how individuals react to the “ghosting” break-up method and its effects on self-esteem, heart rate, and blood pressure. 

Another way the Department has sought to answer those “larger questions” is through interdisciplinary projects—most recently funded by the new HSD Collaborative Research Grant. This internal grant, piloted last spring, spurred research partnerships between individual faculty within different programs. Collaborations includee faculty from Apparel Merchandising and Child and Family Studies exploring parent social media posts and their effects on the parent-child relationship. Faculty from Interior Design and Nutrition Sciences are focused on employee health and productivity in a new health center using a post-occupancy evaluation. A Child and Family Studies and Nutrition Sciences faculty partnership is investigating neurophysiological engagement in a nutrition education program within an African American community. 

“HSD shines because we have such a diverse range of faculty, and because of that, we can contribute in ways that a narrowly-focused department would not be able to,” King says. “The differences of disciplines provide breadth and depth of experience and diversity.”