The National Council on Family Relations (NCFR) has conferred its organization's prestigious Felix Berardo Award for excellence in mentoring to Kay Pasley, Ph.D., the Norejane Hendrickson Professor and Chair of Family and Child Sciences at The Florida State University. The Award was established by the family of the late Felix Berardo who credited much of his success to the devoted guidance of his mentor, F. Ivan Nye.  It was the wish of Dr. Berardo's family that NCFR establish an award to recognize NCFR members who nurture junior colleagues.

Since 1977, much of Dr. Pasley's work has focused on understanding the challenges of stepfamily life, and she is commonly called upon to provide research-based information to media sources through her work with the National Center for Stepfamily Resources. In 1993 she began redirecting some research toward fathering after divorce.

Dr. Pasley has served in many leadership roles within the National Council on Family Relations, and recently completed archiving the papers from the organization's Theory Construction and Research Methodology workshop. She is a former editor of one of NCFR's scholarly journals, Family Relations: Interdisciplinary Journal of Applied Family Studies. Professor Pasley serves on numerous editorial boards, and is part of the training team for the Institute of Academic Leadership which provides education to newly appointed department chairs in Florida. Kay Pasley has published over 70 refereed articles, 30 book chapters, several edited volumes, and  numerous lay publications. However, she is most proud of her contribution to the field through her mentoring of the next generation of scholars.

Dr. Pasley's nomination dossier is replete with praise from her mentees. Dr. Ted Futris describes his experiences in Dr. Pasley's classroom, "Never in my experience in graduate school do I recall reading so much, writing so extensively and, more importantly, receiving so much constructive feedback from an instructor."  Chelsea Graneau, a current student, writes, "When I walked into her office a few years ago, feeling a little lost and fearful of the wide world of academia, and told her I was interested in working with her to research stepfamilies, she welcomed me with open arms, and sent me on my way with a towering stack of books and a new sense of direction." Former graduate student Dr. Brad van Eeden-Moorefield says, "I often remember, and still see, quite a twinkle of excitement in her eyes as we engage in theoretical discussions, chat about new research findings and endeavors, and her smile and laughter continue to brighten my day even when they come in email form." 

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 .