Kansas State University

Ruben Parra-Cardona, associate professor in the program of couple and family therapy at Michigan State University and associate director of the MSU Research Consortium on Gender-based Violence, will present the second Jurich Lecture on Social Justice at 3 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 17.

He will present “Building Bridges of Social Justice: Embracing prevention research to support Latino/a communities in the U.S. and Mexico.”

The afternoon lecture and reception will be at the K-State Student Union. On Friday, Sept. 18, marriage and family therapy alumni and friends are invited to breakfast at the Family Center and then join a program and center tour.

Parra-Cardona’s research, funded by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), compares and contrasts the differential treatment efficacy and cultural relevance of two culturally adapted versions of an evidence-based parenting intervention.

His violence research focuses on the evaluation of cultural relevance of services for Latino survivors as well as Latino men who batter and abuse.

He serves as consultant for the National Resource Center on Domestic Violence, particularly as it focuses on developing theoretical frameworks for the reduction and elimination of violent behaviors in intimate relationships.

The professor’s clinical experience has included the provision of services to street children engaged in drug trafficking and prostitution, child and adult victims of sexual abuse and violence, as well as federal adult probationers convicted for drug trafficking.

The Tony Jurich Lecture on Social Justice honors Jurich, a professor who taught in the School of Family Studies and Human Services for more than 39 years before his death in 2010.

Jurich earned national recognition for his work as a leader in the field of family therapy. He believed in social justice and challenged his students and colleagues to value diversity, promote equality and endorse fairness, said Sandra Stith, University distinguished professor and head of the marriage and family therapy program.

In 2014, Jurich’s wife, Olivia Collins, and his brother, Steve Jurich, established the Tony Jurich Community Commitment and Leadership Student Awards, which recognize graduating students who demonstrate a commitment to the professor’s core leadership tenets.

The tenets — strive for resonance; assume value and be respectful; be compassionate; do what is right; seek out, affirm and utilize diversity; and lead by example — provide a road map for sustainable community change, said Marcie Lechtenberg, marriage and family therapist, instructor and therapist supervisor in the School of Family Studies and Human Services. She received a Jurich graduate student award in 2014.

“Tony was loved and respected as a dedicated therapist, an enthusiastic teacher and researcher, and a wise supervisor and mentor,” Lechtenberg said.

Dorthy Stucky Halley became the first Tony Jurich Lecture on Social Justice when she addressed a crowd of students, faculty and community members on domestic violence and human trafficking on March 12 in the K-State Union.

Halley, who helped develop and was the first coordinator of the Human Trafficking Advisory Board for the Kansas attorney general, warned against stereotyping domestic violence offenders who vary greatly in the type of violence they perpetrate and motives behind their aggression. She listed major motives as entitlement, survival and sadistic.

She also dispelled stereotypes about human traffic victims.

In Kansas, people are often trafficked by a family member, she said. More than 350 victims of human trafficking in Kansas were reported to the state attorney general’s office during fiscal 2014. In at least a third of the cases, the trafficker was the spouse or partner, Halley said.

She is director of victim services for the Kansas attorney general and a licensed master social worker.

Her lecture was presented by the marriage and family therapy program, which is offered by the School of Family Studies and Human Services in Kansas State University’s College of Human Ecology.