About Family Process

Family Process Institute is an independent, multidisciplinary, transnational organization dedicated to developing and exchanging new theory, research, applied practice, and policy related to families and systems. We oversee the journal, Family Process, and ensure the coordination of the operations between Family Process and our publishing partner, Wiley/Blackwell. In addition, beyond our role with the journal, Family Process Institute may take on other projects to promote the field of family theory, practice, research, and advocacy. The beginning of the journal was revolutionary in that it was the first journal in the field. We are now at a new phase in the evolution in our history, as we have the energy and resource to develop Family Process Institute as an independent voice in the field.

Family Process Institute actually became an organization separate from the journal in the early part of this millennium. This is despite the fact that "The Board" was in existence virtually from the outset of the journal. Board members historically had what appeared to be lifelong terms. For many years, there were very popular quadriennials that offered opportunities for fascinating dialogue and social connection. The Institute owned the journal. The Institute and the journal had their ups and downs. In recent years, we forged a deal with Wiley/Blackwell and set term limits for board members and have clear policies and procedures to guide our activities. The board has become much more inclusive in terms of various diversity characteristics, such as gender, race/ethnicity, disciplinary background, etc. Recently, the Family Process Institute completed a strategic planning process and we are focusing on a number of initiatives related to mentoring of the next generation of family scholars, international activities, and grants to support relevant scholarly endeavors. Currently, we are in excellent shape with regard to our economic stability and capacity to be a voice in the field.

I am the 4th President of the Family Process Institute. The first President was Lyman Wynne. Chair and President for over 20 years, he was the guiding light for the journal. One of the original advisory editors, Lyman became Chair of the board in 1973. As a leader, he helped to catapult the journal forward and ensured that it would always prosper intellectually. He facilitated many challenging and delicate negotiations on behalf of the journal. Lyman, the quintessential scholar clinician and devoted family researcher has been credited with amplifying the role of the journal in the field of family therapy as the field was burgeoning. As a leader, he was always quite the collaborator. He truly spearheaded the quadrennial meetings, which were a mixture of professional activity, networking, and decision making. Rob Ryder followed Lyman as President. His presidency, from 1994-2001, represented the early democratization of the board. During his tenure, the journal became an increasingly welcoming home for family social scientists and researchers. Betsy Wood was President from 2002 through 2006. There are two things that we owe Betsy a debt of gratitude. First and foremost, along with Bill Pinsof, Froma Walsh, Ellen Berman, and John Sargent, she stabilized our financial ship and negotiated the contract with Wiley/Blackwell. Secondly, she should be credited with viewing Family Process Institute as a nexus for creative endeavors beyond the journal.

Family Process: The Journal

Nathan Ackerman and Don Jackson founded Family Process as a not for profit journal. It was the first journal devoted to this topic. It had no official connection with a professional association or university. The early editorial board was full of ïwhoÍs whoÍ in family therapy. The board continues to include leaders in the field and to publish some of the most exciting work on family processes. It has gone up in the ranking of family studies journals in recent years and currently has an impact factor of 1.275, of which we are quite proud.

Jay Haley was the first Editor of the journal. One of the most accomplished teachers, clinical supervisors, and authors in our field, he was appointed by Ackerman and Jackson as the first editor of Family Process and he served in this capacity from 1962-1969. He was assisted in this role by his first wife, Elizabeth Haley, who was an experienced journalist. The aim of the journal was to foster the development of a science of the family. The influence of the Palo Alto group in the early issues was very evident. This year, Chris Beels published his personal recollections of Jay's editorial role in the journal.

After being one of the original advisory editors, Don Bloch became Editor in 1970 and remained in this role until 1982. It was under his leadership that the journal went from biennial to quarterly publications. This enabled the journal to be more visible. As Ransom noted in a 2002 article, Don was an effective editor because he loved the work, discovering new talent, encouraging new ideas, moderating controversies, nurturing manuscripts through to finished products, and representing the journal and the field of family therapy. In addition, he did the Family Process Training Project, which listed and categorized all of the training facilities. Because of his success with the journal, he later went on to edit Families, Systems, and Health.

From 1982-1990, Carlos Sluzki edited Family Process. His vision was that the journal was a collective, interdisciplinary brain, of which authors, reviewers, and readers were a part. He referred to the journal as an ecosystem of ideas. Under his leadership, the journal became more focused on the diversity of families.

In 1991, Peter Steinglass became the Editor and remained in this role through 1997. He redesigned the logo and cover page for the journal. While he was at the helm, the journal incorporated new ideas in the field related to feminism, postmodernism, and social construction. He expanded the advisory board to ensure greater demographic diversity, as well as greater integration of individuals with expertise in clinical and research perspectives.

Carol Anderson was the first female Editor of the journal, and held this post from 1998-2003. Incorporating a biopsychosocial perspective, her editorial themes pertained to beyond the nuclear family, families and culture, family strengths and resilience, and interventions with hope.

Evan Imber-Black is the current Editor and her term runs from 2004-2011.Evan stepped in at a critical time in the life of the journal. She has done a fantastic job in forging a productive relationship with Wiley-Blackwell. She is very dedicated to Family Process and tenacious and proactive in getting new articles and special sections and in mentoring junior scholars. Her efforts as an Editor have been fierce and visionary and she insists that the language of the journal is reader friendly and accessible to clinicians and scholars alike throughout the world. She has further diversified the board, including having more junior scholars. The internationality and social justice focus of the journal has really increased. She has done an admirable job of balancing state-of-the-art research with groundbreaking clinical articles.

There are currently three Associate Editors of the journal. Guillermo Bernal is the Associate Editor for Research. Guillermo's passion for clinically relevant research has made him a wonderful resource for the scientific strengths of the manuscripts. The editor of a number of special issues, he has helped to ensure the cultural relevance of the work. Janine Roberts is our first Associate Editor for International Scholarship. She is hands-on and an advocate for ensuring the journal is more international in countless ways. A voice for many cultures, a compassionate and poignant story telling, and a gifted poet, she is an ambassador for and the conscience of the journal. Anne Bernstein is our first Associate Editor for the Website. Unbelievably responsive in terms of the website, she is the keeper of our technological advancement.

In 2012, Jay Lebow will take the helm. A Clinical Professor of Psychology at the Family Institute at Northwestern and Northwestern University, he has engaged in clinical practice, supervision, and research on couple and family therapy for over thirty years, and is board certified in family psychology and an approved supervisor and clinical member of AAMFT. He is the author of 6 books and over 100 book chapters and articles, most of which focus on research and practice in couple and family therapy, the interface of research and practice more broadly in psychotherapy, integrative practice, and intervention strategies with divorcing families. He is a past president of the Society for Family Psychology of the APA (Division 43), served for many years on the Board of Directors of AFTA, and was named Family Psychologist of the Year in 2007. We want to wish him all the best and we are confident that he will continue the journal on the remarkable upward trajectory that it currently is on.

50th Anniversary Celebration

2011 is the 50th anniversary of our journal, Family Process, and in April 2011, we had a wonderful celebration. Froma Walsh and Celia Falicov were the conference co-chairs. Together, Froma and Celia did a remarkable job of making this conference happen and of creating an intellectually engaging and interpersonally connected and warm conference culture. We are grateful to them for their longstanding devotion to Family Process.

One of our major goals of the 50th Anniversary Celebration was to celebrate the goodness of Family Process and its longevity and honor our past. However, we also used this event as an opportunity to advance the Institute and the journal and to begin to chart the course for the next 50 years. Our illustrious and diverse group of key note speakers sparked our intellectual curiosity and creative juices and our small discussion groups enabled us to reflect upon where we have come and brainstorm about where we need to go.

To help ensure that our discourse was as rich and productive as possible, as well as to say thank you to all who have made Family Process the tremendous success that it is today, the following groups of individuals were invited: current and past members of the Family Process Institute Board; current, prior, and future editors and associate editors; advisory board members, many of whom came from outside of the United States; and junior scholars. Nadine J. Kaslow, PhD, ABPP President, Family Process Institute nkaslow@emory.edu