Bonnie Braun, Ph.D., passed away on Nov. 5, 2023, at age 76. She was an NCFR member for 20 years.

In 2000, Dr. Braun asked her NCFR colleagues to look back, look around, and look ahead as she led a preconference workshop focused on “Leadership Renewal: Leaving a Legacy” ahead of the 62^nd NCFR Annual Conference. This workshop was framed as a gift to those that attended. Dr. Braun’s legacy lives on in all the students and colleagues whose lives she touched.

Dr. Braun was professor emerita of Family Science at the University of Maryland School of Public Health and was the first endowed chair and founding director of the Herschel S. Horowitz Center for Health Literacy. She was the first University of Maryland Extension appointee from the Department of Family Science, where she worked on projects focused on the health and well-being of rural, low-income families. She led a long career working at various other institutions around the country and continued to serve as a consultant following her retirement.    

Dr. Braun earned her doctorate in family consumer sciences education from the University of Missouri, and both undergraduate and graduate degrees in home economics education from the University of Central Missouri. Through her work in Extension, Dr. Braun helped public policy makers understand issues that affect families. She helped her colleagues and the public navigate processes to self-advocate. She led a multi-state Extension team in developing and testing a financial and health literacy program to help families make health insurance decisions, titled Smart Choice for Health Insurance. Additionally, Dr. Braun created a consumer education curriculum for youth and adolescents.

Dr. Braun wrote severally about such topics as the future of health and wellness, health insurance literacy, health literacy, and cultural competence. She is remarked for leading nationwide health outreach efforts. She also cowrote on the implications of welfare reform with the late Jean Bauer, Ph.D. In fact, Dr. Braun and Dr. Bauer developed a framework for family income status in relationship to poverty and other well-being studies of families and individuals across the country.

Her research provided an influence on public policy, health and financial well-being, rural economic development, and social conditions that affected the quality of life of farm families. As a member of NCFR, Dr. Braun served as chair of the Family Policy Section, contributed to NCFR’s Family Focus, and presented at NCFR annual conference paper and poster sessions. She authored a NCFR policy brief on Farm Family Stressors. Dr. Braun even led a play at the 2007 NCFR Annual Conference from the Rural Mothers Speak project. She published several articles including guides for other extension education programs, and initiated projects like the Historic Gettysburg Adams County Preservation Society "Investing in Youth" initiative.

Dr. Braun said, “Focusing on decision making is my way of strengthening our democracy. The likelihood that a decision will be a good one increases when consumers, citizens and policy makers are informed and skilled in the art of choice making for themselves, their families, businesses, community, the state and nation.”

You can read her full obituary here.

If you learn of an NCFR member who has passed away, please email [email protected].