Zvonkovic_Walker Award
Dean Anisa Zvonkovic honored for winning Alexis Walker Award
Dean Anisa Zvonkovic delivered a special session virtual address Thursday during the National Council on Family Relations annual conference, as part of Zvonkovic earning the 2020 Alexis Walker Award.
The Alexis J. Walker Award is for lifetime achievement in feminist family studies. Zvonkovic was nominated by Dr. Carol Johnston, an assistant professor in ECU’s Department of Human Development and Family Science, and the nomination process included multiple letters of support and Zvonkovic meeting other criteria.
“It is our honor, as former students, to highlight Dr. Zvonkovic’s phenomenal contributions to the field of family studies over the past several decades as an empowering scholar, teacher and advocate,” said Dr. Joyce Chang, a professor of child and family development at the University of Central Missouri who has served in various leadership roles in NCFR, in her letter featuring a compilation of former student insight. “Her work and role as a mentor has been a springboard for many students to integrate feminist perspectives into their teaching, research and work with families.”
The theme for this year’s conference was, “The science of families: Nurturing hope, happiness and health.”
To earn the Alexis Walker Award, the NCFR seeks nominees who have high visibility in the feminist family section and have strong contributions to feminist family scholarship in teaching, service to feminist family studies and NCFR, leadership and administration and/or activism.
“Her unwavering support of students and faculty in finding their feminist voices is one I can only hope to emulate for future generations of family science scholars,” said Dr. Elizabeth Sharp (Texas Tech) and Dr. April Few-Demo (Virginia Tech) in support of ECU’s dean of the College of Health and Human Performance.
The NCFR website describes a special session as when a presenter or presenters were invited who are well-accomplished in their disciplines. Special sessions are organized by one or more of NCFR’s sections.