Adler-Baeder recognized with Creative Research and Scholarship Award

Currently in her 25th year working on Auburn’s campus, Dr. Francesca Adler-Baeder has left a lasting impact on the College of Human Sciences and more specifically, the Department of Human Development and Family Science, and through her profound work she has been recognized as one of the 2025 Faculty Award Recipients.

Serving as an Endowed Human Sciences Professor and an AU Alumni Professor in the Department of Human Development and Family Science, Adler-Baeder received a Creative Research and Scholarship Award in the Human Sciences category thanks in part to her internationally acclaimed research on relational health, prevention programs, and stepfamilies.

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With a scholarly emphasis on prevention science and couple and relationship education for youth and adults and intimate and coparenting relationships, Adler-Baeder has received continuous extramural funding for 24 years, totaling more than $60 million in competitive federal and state support.

The intentional effort to live out the Auburn Creed is one driving force and motivating factor for Adler-Baeder as a researcher.

“The Auburn Creed emphasizes practical, honest hard work, promotes education and encourages the human touch and real connection. I believe in these things and have built our research program to align with these beliefs,” said Adler-Baeder. “We do not conduct our work in an ivory tower, observing the world from afar. From the beginning, our research ‘lab’ has been the state of Alabama: we’re in the communities, connecting with and educating youth and families. These community members are our research partners. We ask implementation science questions and conduct rigorous random control studies. Over the years they have provided the information that has helped us learn more and then apply this knowledge in practical ways to improve programs and promote healthy relationships and healthy families. The impact evidence we have are not numbers to us — they are people.  We interpret our results in terms of lives changed — and there is nothing more motivating than that. My hope is that I have contributed to the story of how Auburn is involved in work that truly matters in people’s lives.”

Adler-Baeder’s 100 scholarly publications have been cited more than 3,600 times, and her research-based initiatives have reached more than 50,000 high school students and 30,000 adults. Adler-Baeder’s community education curricula have been translated into six languages, extending Auburn’s impact around the world. She has been invited to present her work at the National Press Club, the National Governors Association and the White House Roundtable on Innovative University-Community Partnerships.

Looking toward the future, Adler-Baeder will continue to seek breakthroughs in relationship education and research for the state and beyond.

“With renewed funding and support for the next five years, we look forward to learning even more about ways to enhance the relationship education program experience to best ensure sustained positive impact on all dimensions of health for a diverse population of youth and adults in our state,” said Adler-Baeder. “I am also very excited about the growing opportunities to share our models of best practices and research approaches with colleagues in other countries. Community-based family life education methods and research are years ahead in development in the U.S. and there is a clear interest to grow these efforts globally. I believe my next chapter will be more focused on these efforts and I am so grateful for these opportunities for our team and our students to connect our work internationally.”