The National Council on Family Relations (NCFR) and David H. Olson, Ph.D., are proud to recognize Eman Tadros, Ph.D., LMFT, AAMFT-Approved Supervisor as the 2024 recipient of the NCFR Olson Grant: Bridging Research, Theory, and Practice. Now in its fifth year, this $10,000 annual grant is available to NCFR members working to creatively contribute to the discipline of Family Science by effectively uniting research, theory, and practice in their work.

Dr. Tadros will be recognized during a plenary at the 2024 conference. She will present findings from the study at the 2025 NCFR Annual Conference, to be held Nov. 19-22, 2025, in Baltimore, Maryland.

The proposed study, "Using the Circumplex Model and the FACES IV Assessment to Identify the Needs of Racially and Ethnically Minoritized Individuals Online Dating," will provide insight into how racially and ethnically minorized individuals can have better dating experiences as well as how marriage and family therapists can help them so do. The Circumplex Model categorizes communication patterns into cohesion, flexibility, and communication, offering a framework to analyze online dating dynamics among racially and ethnically minoritized individuals. Additionally, the FACES IV assessment are widely recognized tools used in psychology and family therapy to assess and understand family dynamics, communication patterns, and relationship satisfaction. While these tools have been extensively used in traditional face-to-face settings, their application in the context of online dating among racially and ethnically minoritized individuals has yet to be explored. By including the Circumplex Model and FACES evaluation into the theoretical conceptualization, a holistic framework may be provided to comprehend and tackle the distinct obstacles and opportunities encountered by racially and ethnically minoritized individuals in the context of online dating. These tools give insights that can be utilized for both study and practice in the field of couple and relational dynamics.

The selection committee found Dr. Tadros' project to have a strong connection between the extant research, theoretical underpinnings, and practice and has a feasible plan for data collection and dissemination. The committee "believes the proposed mixed-method study is timely, significant, and will ultimately be successful in journal submissions, conference presentations, and future citations."

NCFR is pleased to present this award to Dr. Tadros for her important work towards effectively uniting theory, research, and practice in Family Science.

David H. Olson, Ph.D., the namesake of the grant, is renowned for his many contributions to Family Science as a scholar, teacher, therapist, and professional. He is an NCFR Fellow, NCFR past president, professor emeritus at the University of Minnesota, and creator of the highly respected Circumplex Model of Couples and Families, which enables researchers and practitioners to examine a couple's relationship through the couple’s flexibility, cohesion, and communication skills. Dr. Olson also established the PREPARE/ENRICH program, used around the world for premarital education and marriage counseling.

Learn more about the grant, eligibility criteria, and application process and requirements at ncfr.org/ncfr-olson-grant.

About the Recipient

Eman Tadros, Ph.D., LMFT, AAMFT-Approved Supervisor, is an assistant professor at Syracuse University in the Department of Marriage and Family Therapy. She is MBTI certified, a prepare/enrich certified facilitator and a Family TEAM leader. She is the Assistant Editor for the Child: Care, Health and Development Journal. She has published 120 peer reviewed journal articles and various magazines, blog posts, book chapters, op-eds, and policy briefs. Her research focuses on family systems, dating, culturally informed care, and incarcerated relationships. Her publications span the Journal of Couple & Relationship Therapy, Integrative and Complementary Therapies, Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment, Journal of Marriage and Family, as well as several book chapters to include working with trauma within incarcerated couples and families. At NCFR, she has contributed to annual conferences through her scholarly presentations, has written for NCFR Family Focus many times, and had her work highlighted in the Best of Family Focus 2015-2019, which calls attention to articles that are just as relevant today as they were when first published. Dr. Tadros is also a reviewer for Family Relations.

The National Council on Family Relations is the premier professional association for the multidisciplinary understanding of families. NCFR has a membership of nearly 3,000 family researchers, practitioners and educators. For more information on the National Council on Family Relations or its scholarly publications, visit the NCFR website at ncfr.org.