NIU has a new chair of the human and family resources department.

Mary Pritchard, who has been at NIU for nine years, was named acting chair for the 1992-93 academic year.

Pritchard is succeeding Earl Goodman, who retired after 20 years at NIU. Goodman had been chair of the HFR department for the past five years.

One of Pritchard’s objectives will be to improve alumni relations, she said. “My goal is to get at least one newsletter out,” Pritchard said.”

Pritchard has a long list of accomplishments in her years at NIU. She has been coordinator of the family and child studies program since 1990. Also, Pritchard helped develop the university’s new student mentoring project. She chaired NIU’s Undergraduate Coordinating Council for one year.

As an acting chair, Pritchard, who is a faculty member, said her role in the university will be very different. “I will be a full-time administrator. I will not be teaching classes this year,” she said.

Pritchard, an expert on family economics, has a master’s degree from Iowa State and a doctorate in consumer economics from Purdue University. In addition to her work at NIU, Pritchard is a former president of the Illinois Consumer Education Association and has presented papers to the American Council on Family Relations and the National Health and Nutrition Survey.