Professor Named a Fellow of National Council on Family Relations

Katia Paz Goldfarb, assistant vice president for Hispanic Serving Initiatives and professor of Family Science and Human Development has been conferred Fellow status by the National Council on Family Relations (NCFR). She will be officially inducted at a ceremony at the 2019 NCFR Annual Conference in November.

The premier professional association for the multidisciplinary understanding of families, the NCFR awards Fellow status to a small, select number of its living members. The prestigious honor acknowledges Goldfarb’s outstanding scholarship, teaching and professional service – including service to the NCFR – and contributions to the family field.

“I’m especially pleased that Dr. Goldfarb adds this academic recognition to her portfolio of duties as Montclair State’s leader for Hispanic Serving Initiatives, since the award references her ‘excellence in training family scientists from a global perspective.’ This is something she certainly excels at,” says Montclair State Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Willard Gingerich.

While serving as founding chair of the Family Science and Human Development Department – formerly known as Family and Child Studies – at Montclair State, Goldfarb expanded undergraduate degree concentrations and helped to establish a doctoral degree program. As assistant vice president for Hispanic Serving Initiatives, she works to strengthen University programs for Hispanic students, faculty and staff.

A noted thought leader, Goldfarb has published extensively on topics ranging from Latinx families and students to pedagogical practices for teaching diversity to varied populations. She has served as an institutional liaison to the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities and delivered numerous keynote addresses at international family conferences. Her efforts to nurture the next generation of scholars have been rewarded with multiple college, university and national awards.

“Professionally, this honor means that my peers recognize my commitments, contributions and leadership to our discipline and to the NCFR,” says Goldfarb. “Personally, this honor reminds me that I am an integral part of my professional family, which carries great responsibilities as well as great joy.”

Goldfarb has considered NCFR her “professional family” since 1992. She has served on its Ethnic Minorities Section, Inclusion and Diversity Committee and Institutional Identity Task Force, and as a co-founding chair of the Latino/a Research Focus Group. She will serve as the program chair for the November 2019 NCFR Annual Conference in Fort Worth, Texas, for which she has proposed the theme of “Family Sustainability: Contextualizing Relationships Within Evolving Systems.”