Victor R. Wilburn is the Chairperson for the Department of Child and Family Studies at Southeast Missouri State University. As Chair, his responsibilities are to coordinate and oversee the Department of Child and Family Studies which consists of 10 full-time faculty, eight part-time faculty, and over 200 undergraduate students.

Dr. Wilburn’s activities consist of teaching in the areas of child development, family studies, and education, research, and student advising. Dr. Wilburn has experience teaching courses in each of the child-related periods of development. Dr. Wilburn has also provided consultation and training to organizations committed to community development and preschool education. He has been at the position of Interim Chair of Human Environmental Studies (January 2017 to July 2018) and the position of Chairperson of Child and Family Studies (August 2018 to Present).

Dr. Wilburn has worked for 10 years as a program director working with children in the state’s custody. He has been responsible for staff training and development and resident crisis management. Dr. Wilburn has also taught courses in child development for four years at the University of Tennessee and five years as an assistant professor at the University of Akron.

Dr. Wilburn earned his Doctorate in Child Development at the University of Tennessee; the M.S. in Rural Sociology from the University of Tennessee; the B.S. in Rural Development from Tennessee State University. Dr. Wilburn has conducted research on rural families and rural community development. He has also done research on children’s development and explored psychosocial developmental outcomes. His works have been published in journals and presented at conferences.