The National Council on Family Relations (NCFR) is proud to recognize Amie Kahovec Allen, M.S., as the 2022 recipient of the Jessie Bernard Outstanding Research Proposal from a Feminist Perspective Award, which is given to a graduate student or new professional who has demonstrated excellence in research and potential contribution to feminist scholarship. Her research proposal is titled “Domestic Violence Exposure and Legal System Involvement Experiences of Young Adults: A Retrospective, Intersectional, Qualitative Study.” 

This award is presented in memory of Jessie Bernard, former NCFR Board Member and pioneer in the field of feminist family studies. Jessie Bernard declared herself a feminist in 1970 and is known for her celebrated description of "his" and "her" marriages. She was a board member of the American Sociological Association, the Groves Conference on Marriage and Family, and NCFR.

Ms. Allen is a doctoral candidate at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville in the child and family studies department. She earned her master’s degree in child and family studies at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and bachelor’s in family social services with a double major in rehabilitation and disability services from Northern Illinois University.

Ms. Allen’s research centers on youth exposed to father-mother-perpetrated domestic violence and their experiences with the legal systems (i.e., police, courts, child welfare), through in-depth interviews examining these experiences. Her research is guided by intersectionality. Ms. Allen’s work has been published in the Journal of Interpersonal Violence and presented at multiple conferences including NCFR and the annual resilience conference. She has received the Tennessee Fellowship for Graduate Excellence award, which cites her academic stature, and the Oscar Roy Ashley Graduate Fellowship, which acknowledges top returning students, among others.

Ms. Allen was recognized for her achievement at the 2022 NCFR Annual Conference.

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.