Early Career Work and Family Fellowship Program
The Work and Family Researchers Network is committed to mentoring the next generation of work and family scholars. Our Early Career Fellowship Program provides support for recent doctoral recipients to advance their research, teaching, and long-term career prospects. By offering networked resources and consultation, we help promising new scholars move into tenure-track, tenured appointments and secure senior-level positions, as well as engage them with the work and family community of scholars.
Call for Applications
The Work and Family Researchers Network (WFRN) is seeking applicants for its 2024-2025 Early Career Work and Family Fellowships. The goal of the program is to help promising young scholars establish career successes and integrate them within the WFRN research community. Fellows receive a 2024 membership in the WFRN, conference registration, and $250 to attend an Early Career Fellowship Preconference (June 19, 2024) and the 2024 WFRN Conference (June 20-22, 2024) in Montreal, Canada. To be eligible, candidates must have received their doctorate in 2019 or later and have yet to progress into tenured or secure senior level positions. Work-family scholars with doctorates granted in the last three years are especially encouraged to apply.
Submit Your Application
The deadline for applications is October 15th, 2023. Applications can be submitted via this link. Questions about the program can be addressed to the program director, Lindsey Trimble O’Connor at lindsey.oconnor@csuci.edu.
Application Preparation Guidance
Applicants are advised to illuminate specific circumstances that relate to the impact that participation in the Early Career Fellowship program might have on their own careers. In your application you will be asked to report information on your doctoral work, current employment, reasons for applying to the program, likelihood of attending the 2024 WFRN conference and ECF preconference, interest in working collaboratively with other fellowship recipients, research interests and teaching interests.
History of the Early Career Fellowship Program
In 2005, the directors of the Sloan Centers on Working Families discussed the challenges that their doctoral students experience as they transition from their Ph.D. granting institutions into their entry level jobs (most commonly as assistant professors). Their concern was that their former students reported feeling isolated and missed the support that was extended through the Sloan Centers. In identifying this concern, the center directors considered strategies for extending support to their graduates to maximize the career prospects of the next generation of work-family scholars, and thereby help secure the future of work and family scholarship.
In response, the Sloan Foundation funded an initiative called The Early Career Work and Family Scholars Program to identify promising academics who had recently received their doctorates and to integrate them into a wider community of work and family scholars. The WFRN has provided support to 80 newer Ph.D. recipients, many of whom have now moved on from their “early career” stage to become recognized leaders in the work and family community. Participants in the current and previous cohorts are listed below
The goal of the program is to help promising young scholars establish career successes, integrate them within the WFRN research community, and guide translation of their research to inform the work of decision-makers. Fellows receive membership in the WFRN, conference registration, and financial support to attend an Early Career Fellowship Preconference and the WFRN Conference. To be eligible, candidates must have recently received their doctorate and have yet to progress into tenured or secure senior level positions. Questions about the Early Career Fellowships can be directed to the program director, Lindsey Trimble O’Connor at lindsey.oconnor@csuci.edu.
Selection Procedures
The Early Career Fellowship Program Director, in concert with the WFRN Executive Officer Tammy Allen, will compose a committee of 3-4 members. Selection procedures include consideration of diversities, potential impact of the program on the recipient’s career, and recipient interests in different elements of the program, and cohort cohesion.
Early Career Fellowship Cohorts
Early Career Fellows 2022-2023
Sarah Andrea, Ph.D., OHSU-PSU School of Public Health, USA
Amit Anshumali, Ph.D., The University of Chicago, USA
Kess Ballentine, Ph.D., Wayne State University, USA
Dylan Bellisle, Ph.D., University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, USA
Mulu Berhanu, Ph.D., Haramaya University, Ethiopia
Soulit Chacko, Ph.D., Indiana University Purdue University, USA
Ho Kwan Cheung, Ph.D., University at Albany, SUNY, USA
Brendan Churchill, Ph.D., The University of Melbourne, Australia
Nicole Dillard, Ed.D., Northern Kentucky University, USA
Kimberly French, Ph.D., Georgia Institute of Technology, USA
Mariam Gbajumo-Sheriff, Ph.D., University of Lagos, Nigeria
Renada Goldberg, Ph.D., Simmons University, USA
Konjit Gudeta, Ph.D., Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia
Shelia Hyde, Ph.D., Texas Woman’s University, USA
Jaeseung Kim, Ph.D., University of South Carolina,USA
Isabel Nuñez Salazar, Ph.D., University of Warwick, United Kingdom
Ariane Ophir, Ph.D., Centre for Demographic Studies (CED), Spain
Gabrielle Pepin, Ph.D., E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, USA
Joanna Pepin, Ph.D., University at Buffalo, USA
Matthew Perrigino, Ph.D., Iona College, USA
Casey Scheibling, Ph.D., University of Toronto, Canada
Melika Shirmohammadi, Ph.D., University of Houston, USA
Tjorven Siervers, Ph.D., Portland State University,USA
Sabrina Speights, Ph.D., Wheaton College – MA, USA
Anna (Anja) Stertz, Ph.D., RWTH Aachen University, Germany
Kai Sun, Ph.D., New York University Shanghai, China
Hilary Wething, Ph.D., Pennsylvania State University, USA
Sigrid Willa Luhr, Ph.D., University of Illinois at Chicago, USA
Jaclyn Wong, Ph.D., University of South Carolina, USA
Gundula Zoch, Ph.D., University of Oldenburg, Germany