Braithwaite chosen for national family communication award

Dawn O. Braithwaite, professor of communication studies at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, was selected for the 2006 Brommel Award for Family Communication from the National Communication Association.

This association-level award for scholarly contributions and leadership in Family Communication will be given at an awards ceremony at the NCA conference in San Antonio in November. The honor is one of the top awards given by the national association.

Braithwaite earned her Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota, her master's degree from California State University, Long Beach, and bachelor's degree from California State University, Fullerton. She teaches courses in interpersonal communication, family communication and small group communication. Braithwaite's research focuses on communication to manage challenges in personal and family relationships via the study of family rituals, relational dialectics and social support. Her research focuses on communication of children and adult members of stepfamilies, specifically how stepfamilies interact and become families, and how members of stepfamilies communicate and manage role changes, expectations and issues of disclosure and privacy. She is particularly interested in communication when children feel "caught in the middle" between their divorced parents. Braithwaite also studies the communication with people who are disabled, focusing on how people with disabilities communicate and manage the uncertainty and discomfort of many nondisabled persons. She has also examined the experiences of women whose husbands live in nursing homes due to Alzheimer's disease and how this affects relationship and family communication.

"I am very pleased by this honor, and I believe it is a testament to the great things we are doing in family communication here at UNL," Braithwaite said. "I do consider this award as shared by my colleagues, co-authors, and a host of students, current and past."

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