President-elect (2024-2025; President 2025-2028, uncontested)
Kari Adamsons, PhD
Candidate Bio:
Kari Adamsons, Ph.D. (she/her), is an Associate Professor in the Department of Human Development and Family Sciences at the University of Connecticut, where she has worked since 2007. She previously earned her BA in Psychology from the College of William and Mary and her MS and PhD in Human Development and Family Studies from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Her research focuses on fathering, parenting, and coparenting, particularly in diverse families and family structures, as well as family theory more broadly. She is particularly interested in issues of gender and identity and how parents negotiate the highly gendered experiences of parenting across the lifespan. She teaches courses on relationships, parenting, family theories, and men and masculinities. Kari currently serves as a Board member-at-large and Secretary/Treasurer for the National Council on Family Relations and on the editorial boards of Journal of Family Psychology and Journal of Family Theory & Review.
Candidate Statement:
I first became involved with the Groves Conference when I was asked to serve as its “corporate representative” in 2017 (due to living in the state of Connecticut, where the Groves Conference is incorporated). Since then, as a member of the Board, I have been increasingly involved in the conference and the organization. The tradition of scheduling conferences to be held on timely topics that promote social justice, and in locations that are integrally associated with the topic, resonates deeply with me personally and professionally. As a smaller and therefore more “nimble” organization than many social science organizations (for example, not having to contract with hotels for conferences several years in advance), Groves is uniquely positioned to push the field forward in innovative and important ways. It would be an honor and a privilege to serve as the President-Elect and then President of the Groves Conference on Marriage and Family and to continue to move the organization forward.