Minneapolis, MN – The National Council on Family Relations (NCFR) has conferred its organization’s prestigious Anselm Strauss Award to Jennifer Davis, Dr. David B. Ward, and Dr. Cheryl Storm. The award is named for Anselm Strauss, whose life’s work was to develop and practice qualitative methodologies. This award, presented by the Qualitative Family Research Network, a focus group of NCFR’s Research and Theory Section, recognizes significant work in the area of family theory, methods and/or research that comes from a qualitative tradition. The announcement will be made at the organization's annual conference in Phoenix, AZ.

Ms. Davis, Ward and Storm were honored for the collaborative work on an empirical research article titled “The Unsilencing of Military Wives: Wartime Deployment Experiences and Citizen Responsibility,” which was published in the Journal of Marital and Family Therapy in 2011. Members of the Qualitative Family Research Network who served on the Award Committee noted several important strengths of this research project that made it worthy of this prestigious award. Specifically, the committee noted that: 1) the choice of data collection procedures was particularly attuned with the unique aspects of exploring the experiences of military wives, 2) the depth and clarity of discussion of procedures was particularly notable, and 3) the thoughtful discussion of the use of action research, the role of the researcher as research instrument, and data analysis was particularly impressive.

Ms. Jennifer Davis graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in English and in Speech Communication from Trinity University and a Master of Arts in Marriage and Family Therapy from Pacific Lutheran University. Beginning with her time at Pacific Lutheran University, Ms. Davis has chosen to focus her research efforts on studying the military family unit during deployment. She has worked as a counselor with individuals, couples, and families both in a clinic setting and in families’ homes. More recently, she has focused on volunteering her services in the military community, including leading a seminar for deploying soldiers on how they can promote their own mental health while deployed to Afghanistan.

David Ward is Department Chair and Associate Professor of Marriage and Family Therapy at Pacific Lutheran University. He joined the Pacific Lutheran University faculty in 2005. Dr. Ward received his Ph.D. in Marriage and Family Therapy from Texas Tech University, his M.A. in Marriage and Family Therapy from Virginia Tech, and his B.S. in Family Science from Brigham Young University. He is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in Washington State.

Cheryl Storm, Ph.D. is a Couple and Family Therapy Supervision and Education Consultant, located in Sunriver, Oregon and a Professor Emeritus, Pacific Lutheran University, Tacoma, Washington since 2007.  She is currently on the Commission on Accreditation for Marriage and Family Therapy.

The National Council on Family Relations is the nation’s premier professional association for the multidisciplinary understanding of families. NCFR has a membership of over 3600 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.