Kansas State University

Welcome to the first edition of the School of Family Studies and Human Services newsletter. I began my role as interim director of the school in July 2018 and will be continuing in the role until a permanent director is hired later this fall. As with any new job, there have been a number of opportunities to expand my historical knowledge, promote the success, and formulate new ideas for growth of the programs within the school.

What is now known as the School of Family Studies and Human Services within the College of Health and Human Sciences has had a rich history. The college was formed in 1873 with the offering of the first women’s course. The college has evolved into a diverse group of students and faculty focused on promoting the well-being of individuals, families, and communities through research, education, and outreach. “In a world focused on things, we focus first on people” is still our motto today.

Continue reading “A Message from the Interim School Director” →

Led by Dr. Amber Vennum, Relevate is a team of faculty, graduate students, and undergraduate students with two main goals:

1. Communicate healthy relationship research to communities through fun and educational public scholarship
2. Help scholars develop skills to successfully share their research with their communities

The team takes current relationship research and translates it to be accessible, engaging, and informative for all individuals. They then share this research through the My Relevate website (www.myrelevate.com), at conference and community engagements, and via social media. For example, the Relevate team produces infographics like these to make research easy to navigate! The team also hosts community events to get the public involved in learning more about healthy relationships including through experiential learning and fun engagement activities. In order to engage scholars in this work, Relevate puts on workshop events at conferences to help teach researchers how to translate their own research into public scholarship and make a meaningful impact in their communities. After all, Relevate believes that relationship research should be shared and used to make a positive difference.

Interested in joining Relevate? Email avennum@ksu.edu to learn more about the team.

Applied Family Science

Shelby Astle—master’s student—Robert H. Poresky Assistantship in Family Studies and Human Services and the Jack M. and Ruth C. Rice Graduate Fellowship

Sarah Barrett—doctoral student in Applied Family Science—Edith A. Vohs Scholarship

Kelly Chambers—master’s student—Lois G. and Jerome L. Chandler Scholarship in Human Ecology

Christalina Estrella—master’s student in Applied Family Science— Edith A. Vohs Scholarship

Emily Koochel—doctoral student—Diane Sanders Memorial Scholarship

Jessie Piper—doctoral student—Robert H. Poresky Assistantship in Family Studies and Human Services

Hilary Pippert—doctoral student—Robert H. Poresky Assistantship in Family Studies and Human Services and Lawrence Ganong and Marilyn Coleman—Ice Family Scholarship Continue reading “Congratulations to the 2019-2020 Student Scholarship Recipients” →

Dr. Jane Garcia holds the Jack M. and Ruth C. Rice Distinguished Professorship. Jane has been supporting graduate student participation in scholarly activities related to diet modifications for impaired swallowing (dysphagia) and health education about traumatic brain injury.” Continue reading “Thankful for our Professorships” →

Dr. Joyce Baptist joined the Council of Scholars of the Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) International Association, a select group of researchers advancing the field of EMDR. Dr. Baptist was also selected to the Governor’s implementation taskforce for the National Strategy for Preventing Veteran Suicide. Continue reading “Kudos to the Faculty and Staff” →

Look for groups of our faculty and students at these upcoming conferences to say hi! Continue reading “Upcoming Events” →