McLanahan was the William S. Tod Professor of Sociology and Public Affairs at
Princeton University. She previously taught at the
University of Wisconsin. At Princeton, McLanahan was the founding director of the Bendheim-Thoman Center for Research on Child Wellbeing. She was also a cofounder, with Dr. Garfinkel and Ron Mincy, of the
Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, director of the Education Research Section, and director of the Joint Degree Program in Social Policy. McLanahan was editor-in-chief of the journal
The Future of Children and a trustee of the
Russell Sage Foundation. She served as president of the
Population Association of America in 2004, was elected a fellow of the
American Academy of Political and Social Science in 2005, and, in 2011, was elected to the
National Academy of Sciences. She was elected a member of the
American Philosophical Society in 2016. McLanahan published more than 125 research articles, 59 book chapters, and 7 books and edited volumes. McLanahan died of lung cancer on 31 December 2021 at her residence in Manhattan, New York. ==Honors and awards==