The Kathleen Christensen Dissertation Award

Nomination and Selection Procedures

Award Purpose

This award recognizes a recent graduate of a doctoral program who has already made a significant contribution to the work and family knowledge base. The Kathleen Christensen Dissertation Award has been created to encourage doctoral candidates and early career scholars to reach for/achieve high and rigorous standards of research relevant to the work and family area of study. It provides financial support to help a promising work-family scholar to initiate post-dissertation research. This award is co-sponsored and co-selected by the Work and Family Researchers Network and the Society for Human Resource Management. This award is made possible by generous support from the Northrop Grumman Corporation, the Families and Work Institute, the SHRM Foundation, SHRM’s National Study of the Changing Workforce, and the Work and Family Researchers Network members.

Award

Recipients receive a framed award certificate and a check for $2500 and an additional $500 to provide travel expenses to the WFRN conference.

Eligibility

Current WFRN members who completed their doctorate with a fully defended and filed dissertation no earlier than February 28th of the prior conference year and no later than February 28th of the current conference year.

Nomination Procedures

Self-nominations are accepted.

Nominations include the following:

  • A summary of the nominee’s dissertation project (no longer than 5 single spaced pages) that includes the following as separate sections:
    • Summary of the research question and its importance to the work-family field
    • Summary of research methods
    • Summary of key findings
    • Summary of implications
    • Summary of existing impact of the dissertation project
    • Plans for future scholarship as related to the dissertation project
  • Nominee’s vitae
  • One letter of support from the nominee’s doctoral committee chair or member of the doctoral committee.

The committee may request additional information, such as the dissertation manuscript or referenced publications/presentations, but these materials are not requested at time of submission.

Committee Structure

The committee will be composed of 2 WFRN members as identified by a representative of the WFRN Board. The representative Board member will invite the prior award recipient to serve on the committee and may also elect to personally serve on the committee.  The committee will also include 2 SHRM representatives as identified by SHRM.

Awards Committee – 2026

  • Tania Hutt (Chair)
  • Victoria Daniel
  • Alex Alonso (SHRM Representative)

Selection Procedure

Recipients will be selected on the following criteria:

  • Importance of the research question for the work-family field
  • Methodological rigor
  • Importance of findings
  • Potential future impact, broadly defined, of the dissertation project

Award Nomination and Selection Schedule

  • Executive Officer posts calls for nominations and applications – September 1st, October 1st, November 1st, and December 1st of the non-conference year.
  • Nominations and application deadline – February 15th of the conference year.
  • The Committee Chair advances recommendations to Executive Committee – April 1st of the conference year.
  • The Committee Chair recommends (if needed) adjustments to the award procedures to Executive Board – April 1st of the conference year.
  • Award Committee Chair notifies recipient – April 15th of the conference year.
  • Award is presented at the biennial conference awards ceremony.

Prior Awards Committees

Awards Committee – 2024

WFRN Representatives

  • Vanessa Conzon, Assistant Professor of Management and Organization, Boston College, USA
  • Clare Kelliher (Award Chair), Professor Labor Studies, Cranfield University UK (Committee Chair. email clare.kelliher@cranfield.ac.uk)

SHRM Representatives

  • Edie Goldberg, SHRM Foundation Board Chair
  • Mark Blankenship, SHRM Foundation Board Member

Awards Committee – 2022

WFRN Representatives

  • Clare Kelliher, Professor Labor Studies, Cranfield University UK (Committee Chair. email clare.kelliher@cranfield.ac.uk)
  • Hak Yoon Kim, Ph.D. 2020 Award Recipient

SHRM Representatives

  • Dr Edie Goldberg incoming SHRM Foundation board chair and current board member
  • Nancy A. Woolever, MAIS, SHRM-SCP | Vice President, Certification, Society for Human Resource Management