The National Council on Family Relations (NCFR) has conferred its organization's prestigious Cindy Winter Award for 2011 on Karen Bluth, a doctoral candidate in the Department of Child and Family Studies at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. The purpose of the award is to honor a student or new professional who has demonstrated outstanding leadership/service in family studies, human ecology, human development, family science or related field.

The award is given in recognition of Cindy Winter, NCFR's Conference Director from 1964-2007. The award is given bi-annually and includes complimentary registration to the NCFR Conference, a plaque, and $500 to be used for travel expenses to attend the NCFR conference.

Ms. Bluth's research interests focus on mindfulness, specifically the potential role that mindfulness practice plays in easing the transition from adolescence to adulthood. Her dissertation project investigates the function of self-compassion as a mediator in the relationship between mindfulness and emotional well-being outcomes in adolescents.

Ms. Bluth's interest in mindfulness research is rooted in an extensive mindfulness practice that began in her own adolescence, and her interest in adolescents stems from a lengthy teaching career, the last seven years of which were teaching in a middle school. In addition to this project, Karen has recently completed a study which explored the relationships among parent mindfulness, parenting effort, and child behavior outcomes in both adolescent and preschool families; this study resulted in two publications in the journal Mindfulness.

In addition to her current dissertation study, she is beginning a mixed-methods mindfulness intervention study at a local middle school, where she will be extending her exploration of the role of self-compassion in mindfulness practice.  In another vein, she is also piloting a picture-narrative qualitative methodology focusing on adolescent identity with fellow doctoral students who she met at the European Association for Research on Adolescents-Society for Research on Adolescents (EARA-SRA) summer institute last year. Additionally, she has also recently spearheaded the reactivation of the student affiliate of NCFR at the University of Tennessee, as well as serving as vice-president of the Graduate Student Organization in her department and chairing the university-wide Student Health Advisory Committee. This semester, she is also teaching an undergraduate class on adolescent and adult development.

Ms. Bluth holds an undergraduate degree from Duke University and a Master's degree in education from Southern Connecticut State University. Looking into the future, she plans to graduate in May, and hopes to combine her research interests and passion for teaching in a faculty position in a university setting.

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 3500 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 .