Judith Waalen received her B.A. in Biology and Psychology from Assumption University in 1962, her M.A. in Psychology from University of Windsor in 1964, and her Ph.D. in Sociology from Wayne State University in 1982. While at Ryerson University Dr. Waalen was a professor in the Department of Psychology and the Director of the Centre of Quality Research. She would later become a professor at Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College, working in the Graduate Studies and Research, and Post-graduate and Continuing Education departments. For many years, Judith taught Psychology courses at Ryerson to students in the professional programs and interacted with a great many faculty members in these departments in various capacities.
In 2000 Judith left the Psychology Department and went to manage Ryerson’s Centre for Quality Service Research and to join CMCC to teach research methods and statistics in their graduate residency programs. During this time with her husband David, she published articles on chiropractic education, and with other colleagues, she co-authored a number of articles for scientific and scholarly journals. In 2005, Judy returned to Ryerson to work as a research analyst for The Chang School. She taught staff members to conduct, analyze, and publish their research in-house, did competitive research, and conducted annual student satisfaction surveys until she left in 2011.