Keynote speakers

Karen Ripoll

Title: Relationship Quality: An Organizing Construct for Research on Adult Intimate Relations

Biography: Karen J. Ripoll-Núñez received her master’s in Marriage and Family Therapy from Syracuse University in 2000 and her doctorate in Human Development and Family studies from the University of Connecticut in 2005. She is an associate professor in the Psychology Department at Universidad de los Andes, Bogotá, Colombia.  She is President of the International Society for Interpersonal Acceptance and Rejection. Her research interests focus on parenting, issues of acceptance-rejection in parent-child and couple relationships, and the quality of couple relationships in different family structures.

Invited Speakers

Marva L. Lewis

Title:   Colorism in Parent-Child Relationships: Translating Research into Community-Based Interventions for Parents.

Biography: Marva L. Lewis completed her PhD in Sociocultural Psychology at the University of Colorado, Boulder. She is currently an Associate Professor in the Tulane School of Social Work at Tulane University and Founder and Director of the Center for Natural Connections. She has extensive publications and her research is supported by private and federal grants, and presented to national and international audiences. She currently serves as a member of the national advisory board for Zero to Three and expert consultant and trainer to the national Quality Improvement Center for Research-Based Infant-Toddler Court Teams (QIC-CT).