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It’s that time of the year again—preparing for the NCFR Annual Conference. The Conference Program Planning Chair, Katia Paz Goldfarb, Ph.D., and the Conference Program Planning Committee have pulled together another excellent conference with many excellent, high-quality sessions, including plenaries, special sessions, invited presenter symposia and workshops, and more. The theme for this year’s conference, “Family Sustainability: Contextualizing Relationships Within Evolving Systems,” will focus on “understanding the ever-complex reality of family relationships. The theme stresses the importance of acknowledging and working with supports that already exist within and outside diverse families.” The specific conference goals are as follows:

• Highlight strength-based research on diverse families and their relationships within their context.
• Feature innovative evidence-based best practices, programs, and pedagogies that promote family resiliency and well-being for diverse families in a variety of context.
• Draw attention to and critically analyze policies that strengthen or are of detriment to relationships for all types of families.

I want to take this time to call your attention to some of the many policy sessions that will occur during this year’s conference. Be sure to check out the conference program (ncfr.org/ncfr-2019/conference-schedule) for a full list of policy and policy-related posters and sessions not listed here—and all of the other sessions too. ( = live-streamed session)

Wednesday, Nov. 20

• Parenting, Work, Resources, and Relationships: Dynamic Interactions of Policy and Family, a Family Policy Section lightning paper session
• Family Policy and Research, a Family Therapy Section roundtable session
• Dynamic, Transactional Effects of Parenting Stress and Daycare on Developmental Outcomes Across Childhood in Diverse Families, a Family Policy Section symposium

Thursday, Nov. 21

• Family First Prevention Services Act: Building a 21st Century Child Welfare System, an invited presenter symposium organized by the Family Policy Section*
• Intimate Partner Violence and Immigration: Research and Policy Perspectives, a special session organized by the Feminism and Family Studies and Family Policy Sections :
• Contextualizing Relationships and Systems Across the Life Course: Adoptees, Adoptive Families, and Adoption Professionals, a Family Policy Section symposium

Friday, Nov. 22

• Shoring Up the Capacity of Health Care, Early Childhood, and Families to Prevent and Mitigate Toxic Stress: Opportunities and Challenges, an invited presenter symposium organized by the Family Policy and Families and Health Sections

In addition to these sessions, the scheduled plenaries are sure to inspire us to think critically about family policy implications and how research can and should have an impact on policies at the federal, state, and local levels.

• Shifting Terrain: The Changing Context of Family Sustainability and Healthy Relationships, Stephanie Coontz, Wednesday opening plenary :
• Supporting and Sustaining Research on Children and Families: Research Priorities and Future Directions, Valerie Maholmes, Ph.D., C.A.S., Thursday plenary :
•  Children of Immigrant Backgrounds: Contributions or Burden? Cynthia García Coll, Ph.D., Friday plenary :
•  Closing the Gap Between Two Countries: 10 Years of Implementation of a U.S.-Mexico Program of Parenting Prevention Research With Underserved Populations, Rubén Parra-Cardona, Ph.D., Saturday closing plenary :

Two final sessions to highlight social justice are the Inclusion and Diversity Committee’s special session, Revisiting Social Justice in the Context of Family Science: Considerations for Teaching, Scholarship, and Research, and Stress, Discrimination, and the Promotion of Social Justice Among Youth of Color, an Ethnic Minorities Section lightning paper session. Both sessions are on Wednesday, Nov. 20.

Be sure to check out all of the excellent sessions offered throughout the conference related to policy, advocacy, social justice, and more. You can find a full list of these sessions and more information in the annual conference program. At the conference, you can also discover sessions to attend based on your interest areas, such as NCFR’s 10 sections, and relevant topics such as immigration and LGBTQ+. The 2019 NCFR Annual Conference is sure to generate multiple ideas, connections with new and familiar colleagues, and future conference proposals and research collaborations!