Rubén Parra-Cardona, Ph.D., associate dean for global engagement at the Steve Hicks School of Social Work (SHS), was recognized with the inaugural Adrian Blow Outstanding Innovation in Research award by the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy.
This new award honors a prolific researcher who has demonstrated innovation in their research contributions to the field of systemic family therapy. Dr. Parra-Cardona was given the award at the 2023 Intervention Research in Systemic Family Therapy Annual Conference, which took place September 21-22, in Provo, Utah.
“I am honored to be recognized with this inaugural award, which truly signifies the important work we do with families,” said Dr. Parra-Cardona. “We will continue to serve the profession of social work with excellence and bring forth evidence-based research to empower parental relationships, strengthen families, and create further human flourishing within family dynamics.”
Some of Dr. Parra-Cardona’s research has included serving as a Co-Principal Investigator on a large-scale initiative to disseminate a culturally adapted parenting program in Chile, as well as serving as an expert co-author on a Parenting Intervention Handbook to be published by the World Health Organization. His research has focused on helping international organizations and governments select, design, evaluate, implement, monitor, and scale up evidence-based parenting interventions to prevent maltreatment and enhance parent-child relationships in children aged 0-17 years.