URBANA, Ill. - The National Council on Family Relations (NCFR) has conferred its prestigious Fellow status on Jennifer L. Hardesty, professor of human development and family studies in the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign.

NCFR Fellows are nominated by their peers and are selected by the NCFR Fellows Committee. Hardesty was recognized as a new fellow at the 2019 NCFR Annual Conference this past week in Fort Worth, Texas.

Hardesty earned her bachelor’s degree from Eastern Kentucky University, Summa Cum Laude, and her master’s degree and Ph.D. from the University of Missouri-Columbia. She extended her training as a National Institute of Mental Health postdoctoral Fellow at the Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing, and then began her career in academia as an assistant professor at U of I in 2003.

“Dr. Hardesty is a model of the land-grant scholar. Her research questions are informed by current legal concerns, and her empirical findings have impacted how judges and other legal practitioners make decisions about divorce and co-parenting,” says Ramona Oswald, head of the Department of Human Development and Family Studies at U of I. “Her teaching connects theory with practice, and her service to both campus and the discipline have led to policy change.  

“We are proud to have Dr. Hardesty on our faculty and recognize that her many contributions have shaped the success of our program, and our graduates,” Oswald adds.

A distinguished scholar, Hardesty has made sustained and influential contributions to scholarship on intimate partner violence (IPV). Her research interests in that area include IPV, separation/divorce, and co-parenting after separation; coercive control in current and former intimate partner relationships; family court responses to IPV; and health and safety of mothers and children after leaving abusive partners.

Hardesty has published more than 30 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters and her work is widely cited. Her research has been supported by funding from the National Science Foundation, the National Institute of Justice, the National Institutes of Health, and the Lesbian Health Fund of the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association.

Hardesty has performed extensive service to NCFR through her frequent presentations at annual conferences, her leadership on the NCFR Board of Directors, and her service on the editorial boards of two of NCFR’s scholarly journals: Family Relations: Interdisciplinary Journal of Applied Family Science and Journal of Family Theory & Review. She also served as an officer of NCFR’s Research and Theory Section and Families and Health Section, and as adviser for the student affiliate of NCFR at the U of I. She has received numerous college, university, and national awards for her scholarship, teaching, and mentoring, including the Alexis J. Walker Award for Mid-Career Achievement, and both Jessie Bernard Awards from NCFR, which acknowledge outstanding contributions to feminist scholarship.

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, contact NCFR at 1-888-781-9331 or visit its website at www.ncfr.org.