Sandra Stith, an internationally known expert on understanding and treating intimate partner violence, has been named a university distinguished professor, a lifetime title and the highest honor the university bestows on its faculty members.
Stith, Virginia Mowrey McAninch professor of family studies and human services, directs the marriage and family therapy program in the College of Human Ecology. She is a board member, and Fellow, of the National Council on Family Relations and vice president of the American Family Therapy Academy.
This year she presented workshops on Couples Treatment for Domestic Violence in Vancouver, BC, Canada, University of Ulster, Northern Ireland, Oslo, Norway, and Helsinki, Finland.
Currently, Stith leads a large meta-analysis project examining risk factors for partner violence. She continues to study dating violence and couples treatment for domestic violence
Since coming to the university in 2007, Stith has garnered nearly $8 million in grants. She is the author of one book and has edited four books on intimate partner violence and authored more than 90 articles and book chapters on the subject. Stith has received National Institute of Mental Health funding to develop and test a couple’s treatment program for intimate partner violence. She has worked with the U.S. Air Force Family Advocacy Program since 1998 as a manager of a variety of family violence-related research projects.
Her other honors include the American Family Therapy Association’s Distinguished Contribution to Family Systems Research Award in 2007 and the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy’s Outstanding Contribution to Marriage and Family Therapy Award in 2004. In 2012 she became a fellow of the National Council on Family Relations.
Stith grew up in Oklahoma. She received her bachelor’s degree in education from Oklahoma State University. She earned her master’s degree in life span human development and her doctorate in marriage and family therapy from Kansas State University.
