Human Development and Consumer Sciences Department Chair and professor Barbara Stewart received the Lifetime Legacy Award from the American Association of Family and Consumer Sciences (AAFCS) at the AAFCS Annual Conference in Louisville, Kentucky earlier this summer. This award acknowledges “sustained involvement… that has shaped AAFCS and the Family and Consumer Sciences (FCS) profession as a whole.”
Stewart served as President of AAFCS for 2025 – 2026, leading the association in pursuing its goal of “elevat[ing] the profession by inspiring research, leadership, and service to empower individuals, families and communities.” She first began attending the AAFCS Annual Conference more than forty years ago, where she found “like-minded professionals working in diverse practice settings seeking to improve the quality of life for individuals, families and communities,” and her involvement only grew over time.
To date, and in addition to her AAFCS publication and presentation work, Stewart has served as a member of the Board of Directors; Chair of the Council for Accreditation; Chair Assembly of Higher Education; Chair Public Affairs Committee; Chair College and University Section; Co-Chair Leadership Academy; and co-chair, officer and member of the Collegiate Assembly, Taskforce for Program Advancement in FCS, Washington Weekend Public Policy Seminars, and Community for Building Leadership Capacity.
“Perhaps my most worthwhile endeavor has been the conceptualization and execution of the AAFCS Leadership Academy. A small founding team recognized the need for a cadre of FCS leaders for the future and initiated in 2013 a two-day pre-conference Leadership Academy which now bi-annually invites about a dozen early-career professionals to engage not only in the pre-conference workshop but in monthly webinars, a supervised mentorship and year-long association-based project,” she said. “The results have been highly rewarding, with AAFCS Leadership Academy alumni now filling major leadership roles including those on the national Board of Directors and local state affiliates.”
“Another very rewarding aspect of my affiliation with AAFCS has been a recent grant collaboration that began simply by one member sitting next to another member in a meeting session,” said Stewart. “The result has been UH’s participation a multi-year $18M grant consortium that, via scholarships and funded programs, has personally impacted the graduation and career progression of UH Retailing and Consumer Science (B.S.) and Global Retailing (M.S.) students.”
She describes her continued engagement with AAFCS as “substantially people-based,” adding that the association’s members and programs have offered “personal and professional friendships that have driven [her] career forward and enabled [her] to invest in the futures of others and of the profession.”
“It is heartwarming that my peers and the profession have chosen to honor my legacy,” Stewart said.