American Association of Housing Educators

The American Association of Housing Educators was formally organized in 1965 at the University of Missouri, as a result of conferences on housing within the home demonstration movement. The organization has attempted to increase the effectiveness of housing education, expands outreach of educators and researchers, distribute information on current developments in housing, and promote recruitment in advanced studies of housing.

The American Association of Housing Educators was formally organized in November, 1965 at the University of Missouri. Its first conference was held at the University of Illinois in 1966; however, preceding the conference in 1965, there had been Housing Conferences for Home Economics Teachers and Administrators of the North Central States at the University of Illinois in 1946 and at Purdue University in 1948. In 1956, Dr. Doretta Hoffman, Dean of the College of Home Economics at Kansas State University, suggested that something should be done to strengthen the teaching of housing in home economics. Thus, a group first met under the auspices of the Home Economics section of the Association of Land-Grant Colleges and Universities, calling itself The Conference for the Improvement of Instruction in Housing in Home Economics in Land-Grant Colleges and Universities. Eventually, "Home Economics" was dropped from the name, and in 1965, the group became autonomous, calling itself the American Association of Housing Educators, or AAHE, with Tessie Agan, educator at Kansas State University, as its first president.

The American Association of Housing Educators was formally organized in November, 1965 at the University of Missouri. Its first conference was held at the University of Illinois in 1966; however, preceding the conference in 1965, there had been Housing Conferences for Home Economics Teachers and Administrators of the North Central States at the University of Illinois in 1946 and at Purdue University in 1948. Correspondence of Dr. Doretta Hoffman in 1956 gave the assocation its intitial start.

Dr. Doretta Hoffman, Dean of the College of Home Economics at Kansas State University, suggested that something should be done to strengthen the teaching of housing in home economics . Thus, the group met under the auspices of the Home Economics section of the Association of Land-Grant Colleges and Universities . This early group was called The Conference for the Improvement of Instruction in Housing in Home Economics in Land-Grant Colleges and Universities .

Eventually, "Home Economics" was dropped from the name. During the Ninth Conference for the Improvement of Instruction in Housing in 1965, the group became an assocation in their own right, the American Association of Housing Educators, or AAHE, with Tessie Agan, educator at Kansas State University, as its first president.

The early conferences and those of the American Association of Housing Educators have served to increase the effectiveness of housing education, expand the outreach of educators and researchers, distribute information on current developments in housing, and promote recruitment in advanced studies of housing. The AAHE Newsletter continues to keep members informed of projects and progress. Additionally, the Journal of the American Association of Housing Educators, Housing and Society, has brought presitge to the assocation and helped increase its membership numbers.