Tammy L. Henderson is the Vice President of the Office of Strategic Initiatives and Innovations, a Professor in the Department of Family and Community Medicine, and family law, policy, diversity, and disaster scholar with a well-focused basic and translational science publications and funded research. Some of her notable works center around grandparent rights and responsibilities, Hurricane Katrina’s influence on older adults, and a Cultural-Variant Community-based Participatory Research model focused on vulnerable populations and intersectionality, assessing the experiences, strengths, and needs of communities and researchers from underrepresented groups.

She has mentored undergraduates, graduate students, and colleagues, which contributed to her being nominated and selected for the 2020 Felix Berardo Scholarship Award for Mentoring. Besides mentoring, she has engaged in the Scholarship of instruction and curriculum development and implementation. Dr. Henderson was on the committee that modified the Gerontology program and founded the Public Health program at Oklahoma State University. Later she worked with faculty to get the Masters in Nutrition approved and implemented.

Her consultations have focused on disaster preparedness, accreditation preparation, professional development, and shared governance. Her commitment to putting research to work included designing the Linking Gerontology and Geriatrics conferences via a federally-funded partnership between the University of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State University. She was the 2021 Conference Program Chair for National Council on Family Relations and is the Associate Editor, Family Relations: Interdisciplinary Journal of Applied Family Science. With a focus on family policy and law, Henderson completed her doctoral studies at Oregon State University in Human Development and Family Science. As a graduate of Louisiana State University, she completed a master’s degree in Child and Family Studies and a bachelor’s in General Studies.