Wendy D. Manning

Wendy D. Manning is the Dr. Howard E. and Penny Daum Aldrich Distinguished Professor of Sociology at Bowling Green State University (BGSU), within the College of Arts & Sciences. She serves as Co-Director of the National Center for Family & Marriage Research (NCFMR) and founded the Center for Family and Demographic Research. Her research focuses on family formation, cohabitation dynamics, same-sex couples, and adolescent relationships, with an emphasis on health and well-being.

Education: PhD, MS, and BA in Sociology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Research Interests: Family demography, relationship stability, fertility, LGBTQ+ family structures, and the impact of social policies. Her work includes the Toledo Adolescent Relationship Study (TARS) and the National Couples’ Health and Time Use Study (NCHAT).

Key Awards:

• President of the Population Association of America (2018)
• ASA Amicus Brief for U.S. Supreme Court on same-sex marriage cases
• Federal grants from NIH, NSF, and NIJ

Labs/Teams: Leads the NCFMR and CFDR, collaborating on projects like the NCHAT study. Her research addresses societal shifts in family structures and policy implications.