SAINT PAUL, MINNESOTA — The National Council on Family Relations’ (NCFR) membership has elected Alisha M. Hardman, Ph.D., CFLE, as the new Affiliate Councils president-elect to represent the Affiliate Councils on the NCFR Board of Directors.

Dr. Hardman is an associate professor in the Department of Applied Human Sciences at Kansas State University. She has been involved in the evaluation of family life and Extension programming for the past 12 years. She is a Certified Family Life Educator (CFLE) whose applied research focuses on family stress, crisis, and trauma with an emphasis on promoting relational health to prevent and protect against the effects of adverse childhood experiences and other trauma.

Dr. Hardman holds a B.S. and M.S. in family studies and human services from Kansas State University and a Ph.D. in curriculum and instruction from the University of Minnesota.

At NCFR, she has been particularly active with the CFLE credential program and has served on the CFLE Advisory Board. As an NCFR affiliates leader, she has been a board member of the Minnesota Council of Family Relations and a faculty adviser of Mississippi State University’s student affiliate. She has also served as the secretary/treasurer and student and new professional representative of NCFR’s Family and Community Education Section.

In her candidate statement, Dr. Hardman wrote that “the affiliate councils make a valuable contribution to NCFR through their efforts to fulfill the mission of NCFR at the state, regional, and college/university levels. My goal is to continue strengthening the connection between affiliates. There are opportunities for representatives of affiliates to connect at the conference annually. Still, I would like more opportunities to connect throughout the year to share ideas, network, and foster relationships across institutions, states, and regions. For instance, I would like to host a virtual conference for the affiliate councils, allowing more affiliate members to participate and benefit.”

The National Council on Family Relations is the premier professional association for the multidisciplinary understanding of families. NCFR has a membership of nearly 3,000 family researchers, practitioners and educators. For more information on the National Council on Family Relations or its scholarly publications, contact NCFR at 1-888-781-9331 or visit its website at www.ncfr.org.