NCFR members Jacquelyn J. Benson, Ph.D., and Heather Sedges Wallace, Ph.D., CFLE, are the two recipients of the 2018 Early Career Achievement award from the Institute of Youth, Family, and Community – a division of the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture. This award is given to state Extension specialists with six or fewer years experience, who have made important contributions to the work of Cooperative Extension and who provide clear evidence of program impacts. It was presented at the National Awards for Family Life and Human Development State Specialists.

Dr. Benson is an assistant professor of human development and Family Science and state specialist in gerontology for the College of Human Environmental Sciences Cooperative Extension at the University of Missouri. Dr. Benson conducts and translates research to assist older adults in aging well physically, socially, and emotionally. Her research on older adults "living apart together" published in Family Relations: Interdisciplinary Journal of Applied Family Science has been widely featured in national media outlets. Current projects focus on understanding how the repartnering of adults, and the challenges that home deaths present to caregivers.

Dr. Wallace is an assistant professor of family and consumer sciences at the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture. She also serves as co-director of the Center for Parenting at UT, which she helped create as a graduate student. Dr. Wallace works with Tennessee-based professionals who provide parenting and relationship education in community-based settings. She has innovated the use of Augmented Reality in educational materials and created the nation’s first and only research-based curriculum that helps families manage technology in their everyday lives.  This program, known as “Digi_Life” is already employed by teams at Mississippi State and Michigan State Extension. Learn more about Digi_Life.