The National Council on Family Relations (NCFR) is proud to recognize Karen Talley, B.S., as the 2024 recipient of the Feldman Outstanding Research Proposal for Research in Family Policy Award, which recognizes a graduate student or new professional who has demonstrated excellence in research and potential contribution to family policy studies, particularly in the areas of gender/women's issues or poverty.

Karen is currently in the MS-PhD human development and Family Science program at the University of Missouri. Karen's passion for research comes from a previous position she had as a research lab supervisor at the University of Houston. Karen studies the ways we tell stories in and about our relationships, and how those stories shape our outlook and well-being across the lifespan. Karen also seeks to understand how social policy and other contextual influences might shape people’s stories and experiences. Karen's research project involves interviewing service providers of LGBTQ+ survivors of interpersonal violence on the needs, barriers, and resources that would most benefit this population, building on her knowledge about narrative processes and qualitative analyses.

Karen has presented at NCFR's annual conferences. Her work has been published in the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships and the Journal of Child and Family Studies. In addition to her research, Karen currently serves as the president of the HDFS Graduate Student Association (GSA) at the University of Missouri, as well as an HDFS representative on the Graduate Student Advisory Council (GSAC).

Karen Talley will be recognized for her achievements during a plenary at the 2024 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.