President’s Report: In Conversation With One Another

Anisa M. Zvonkovic, Ph.D., NCFR President
Winter 2017 NCFR Report

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Anisa Zvonkovic

This is my first NCFR president’s column, and so I want to let you all know how grateful I am, both for your support of me and for your involvement in this organization. My own NCFR story may sound familiar, and perhaps it is similar to yours. NCFR was my first professional membership and my first professional conference. I have had numerous objective career successes because of NCFR members, and I have experienced even more subjective benefits from being active in the organization.

Whether it’s networking professionally, renewing friendships with colleagues across the United States and internationally, keeping current on teaching, research, and programming, or connecting with others facing similar professional challenges, NCFR has really allowed me to thrive in this family-focused profession I find so gratifying.

For me, and I suspect most of us, choosing a family-focused profession was a natural outgrowth of a drive and passion to do some good in the world. For many of us, it’s a calling. Focusing on family relationships allows us to connect with other people regarding the most intimate parts of their lives, in conversation and collaboration with them, toward understanding their experiences and our common humanity. I have heard university administrators talk about the mission of higher education as “devoted to improving people’s lives.” That mission is also certainly true for those of us in social service agencies, and other direct-service organizations.

In order to work with you, I need to know what concerns you have, and I need to communicate to you what the board is doing and discussing.

This sense of mission relates very well to the discipline of Family Science. While I would like for everyone to live the best life they can, I am convinced that we need to be in conversation with people to understand what improving their lives would mean for them, rather than presuming that we know how to improve people’s lives without their own voice. So much of the world disregards people’s own goals for themselves and their lived experience. I have always resonated with family-focused research and practice that is truly with individuals, rather than on them. I carry that same perspective into my new role with NCFR – in order to work with you, I need to know what concerns you have, and I need to communicate to you what the board is doing and discussing.

We have made great progress in board communication under Bill Allen’s leadership (I have learned so much from Bill!), and we plan to continue to reach out to you. As you have probably noticed, the NCFR board has surveyed members over the past year about policy involvement activities, and the board has begun regular communications with section chairs over the year to hear members’ opinions. I plan to continue this communication with section chairs. The board welcomes your opinions, and we do talk about them in our monthly conference calls.

My hope as I take on being president of this organization—to which I owe so much, and to which I am so devoted—is to be effective in communicating its benefits and to sustain, and even enhance, its value to NCFR members and to the world.


NCFR members are invited to communicate directly with board members by emailing them (log in to my.ncfr.org for the directory), or by emailing the general board email address.