Christine B. WhelanTeaching Faculty; Director of Money, Relationships and Equality Initiative

Christine Whelan is a clinical professor in the Department of Consumer Science. She is the director of the Money, Relationships & Equality Initiative in the School of Human Ecology. In partnership with the Center for Financial Security, Whelan teaches and researches on topics of self-improvement, gender, relationships formation, and purpose throughout the life course. Prior to joining the School of Human Ecology, Dr. Whelan was a visiting assistant professor in the sociology departments at the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Iowa.

Dr. Whelan earned her doctorate from the University of Oxford for her research on the quest for self-control and self-improvement in America since the 1950s. She continues to research behavioral change literature and programs, incorporating aspects of applied sociology into her teaching. As a nationally recognized expert in the field of self-improvement, Dr. Whelan has authored two books on best practices for emerging adults—Generation WTF (Templeton Press, 2011) and The Big Picture (Templeton Press, 2016)—delivered two TEDx talks on applied purpose, published op-eds in The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, USA Today, Chronicle of Higher Education, and been quoted as an expert on self-improvement in Forbes, SELF, City Journal, and many others.

Dr. Whelan also researches and writes on changing dating and marriage patterns in the United States. She has authored two books shattering myths of hypergamy—Why Smart Men Marry Smart Women (Simon & Schuster, 2006) and Marry Smart (Simon & Schuster, 2009)—and academic articles on mate preferences. On this topic, Dr. Whelan has been published in The Chronicle of Higher Education, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, and the New York Post, and she has been cited and reviewed in The New York Times, Cosmopolitan, and The Washington Post, among others.