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K-State Today

October 20, 2011

A multiple benefit: Award helps researcher establish retreats for military couples, expand work with military families

Submitted by Communications and Marketing

Briana Nelson Goff, professor and director of the Institute for the Health and Security of Military Families at Kansas State University's College of Human Ecology, has been awarded the Dean Barbara S. Stowe Faculty Development Award for 2011.

Goff will use the award to further her work with the institute by collaborating with the Deployment Health Clinical Center at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Maryland and the National Veterans Wellness and Healing Center in Angel Fire, N.M. She has partnered with the two organizations to develop veteran couples retreats in Kansas and to develop state and national policy initiatives to address the health and well-being of military service members and their families.

Using the Angel Fire community-based holistic, integrative model, the institute will provide the first veteran couples retreat the last weekend in October. The retreat will work with veteran couples facing post-traumatic stress and other post-combat problems.

"This is an increasingly critical public health and public service need across the nation," Goff said.

At the Institute for the Health and Security of Military Families, which opened in 2009, Goff develops and coordinates collaborative research and academic, outreach and clinical programs.

The Stowe award was established to honor the former dean of the college from 1983 to 1998. Known as a progressive and innovative national leader, Stowe helped enhanced the stature and productivity of the college.

Goff, professor of family studies and human services, served as associate dean for academic affairs for the College of Human Ecology from 2005-2011. She has received the Undergraduate Research Mentor Award by the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities Board on Human Sciences.