The National Council on Family Relations (NCFR) has conferred its prestigious Fellow status on Francesca Adler-Baeder, professor and extension specialist in the Department of Human Development & Family Studies at Auburn University. Dr. Adler-Baeder also is the director of the university's Center for Children, Youth, and Families, and oversees the activities of the National Stepfamily Resource Center.

Dr. Adler-Baeder, a Certified Family Life Educator (CFLE), earned her bachelor's degree in communications from the University of North Carolina at Pembroke, and her Master's and Ph.D. in human development / family studies from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. She began her career as a research associate at Cornell University in 1999, where she was also an extension agent and family life education director.

Dr. Adler-Baeder is recognized as a Fellow for her exceptional record of grant procurement (well over $20 million); her development, delivery, and evaluation of programs to enhance family relationships — especially her efforts targeting young parents, people of color, and low risk families — and her mentoring of future leaders in the field of family science.

She has co-authored more than 50 refereed publications and more than 100 professional paper and poster presentations. She also has received many awards from Auburn University, including the Excellence in Faculty Outreach Award and the Distinguished Diversity Researcher Award, as well as the state of Alabama's Strengthening Alabama Families Award.

NCFR Fellow status is awarded to relatively few NCFR members on the basis of their outstanding and enduring contributions to family science, in areas including scholarship, teaching, outreach, practice, and professional service.

The National Council on Family Relations is the premier professional association for the multidisciplinary understanding of families. NCFR has a membership of more than 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.