Ambiguous Loss Scholar to join FSoS faculty

Chalandra M. Bryant is the first Pauline Boss Faculty Fellow in Ambiguous Loss. Chalandra Bryant, the Family Social Science 2019-2020 Ambiguous Loss Scholar, will join the Department’s faculty this fall as the first Pauline Boss Faculty Fellow in Ambiguous Loss. 

Dr. Bryant comes to Minnesota from the University of Georgia (UGA) where she was a professor of Human Development and Family Science and taught courses in family development, intimate relationships, and family theories. She also previously served at the National Science Foundation’s program director in the Division of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences.

Her research focuses on the developmental roots and course of close relationships; the ability to sustain close intimate ties; and the manner in which social, familial, economic, and psychosocial factors are linked to marital outcomes. A National Institutes of Health-funded project, A Study of African American Marriage and Health, examined factors contributing to the marital and health outcomes of newly married African American couples as well as the interrelationship between marriage and health.  

She has served on the editorial boards of the Journal of Family Theory and Review and the Journal of Marriage and Family. She is a co-author of the book,  Family Stress Management: A Contextual Approach, Third Edition published by  Sage.

She has been honored with the National Council on Family Relation’s (NCFR) Reuben Hill Research and Theory Award and the Outstanding Young Professional Award from the Texas Exes Alumni Association of the University of Texas. In addition, the International Association for Relationship Research presented her with the New Contributions Award (honoring significant contributions to personal relationships research).

At UGA, she was recognized as a faculty member who contributed greatly to the career development of UGA students and by the Provost as a top researcher. Before moving to Georgia, she was on faculty at Iowa State University and The Pennsylvania State University. She earned her Ph.D. at the University of Texas and completed a two-year National Institutes of Mental Health (NIMH) post-doctoral fellowship.