Camilla J. Hodge is an Associate Professor of Experience Design and Management in the BYU Marriott School of Business, where her research examines how family life is patterned, shaped, and designed through shared experiences, particularly in the domain of family recreation. She earned a PhD in Parks, Recreation, and Tourism Management with an emphasis in Family Recreation from North Carolina State University (2014), a master's degree in Youth and Family Recreation from Brigham Young University (2011), and a bachelor's degree in Communications from BYU (2007). Before returning to BYU as a faculty member in 2021, she held faculty positions at the University of Utah, where she was a faculty affiliate of the Consortium for Families and Health Research (C-FAHR), and Pennsylvania State University, where she was a faculty affiliate of the Child Study Center under the Families at Risk (FAR) research initiative.
Dr. Hodge's scholarship sits at the intersection of family and leisure science, and experience design. Her work situates common family occasions, such as shared recreation, as opportunities to support individual and family flourishing and success. Dr. Hodge’s research has examined the biological mechanisms of bonding during shared leisure, how family structure shapes parent-child leisure, and how structural and economic access influences family recreation. She is a co-developer of the Ecology of Family Experiences framework, published in the Journal of Leisure Research, which models the outcomes of shared family experiences as the product of interactions between family characteristics and activity design. Building on this theoretical foundation, she and her colleagues’ applied work has produced a Family Activity Profile tool that help families and practitioners diversify their repertoire of shared experiences.
Dr. Hodge extends the application of her research through teaching and mentoring undergraduate students in BYU’s Experience Design and Management program, with an emphasis on designing experiences that foster social connection.