Family Issues

Jody Koenig Kellas is a Willa Cather Professor who conducts research and teaches classes on interpersonal, family and health communication. She studies the ways in which narratives, storytelling and related forms of communicated sense-making can help individuals and families communicate and cope in times of difficulty and illness. Her research laboratory, Narrative Nebraska, seeks to implement interdisciplinary, narrative-based interventions to improve caregiving, communication and psychosocial well-being for families and care providers. (Updated March 2025)

Brank holds a law degree and doctorate from UNL’s law-psychology program. Her research focuses primarily on the way the law intervenes and sometimes interferes in family and personal decision making. In particular she studies the public support, implementation and effectiveness of parental responsibility laws associated with the juvenile justice system. She also studies the legal requirements for elder care giving.

Carrie Hanson-Bradley is director of the Marriage and Family Therapy Program at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. As a licensed marriage and family therapist, she specializes in treating individuals, couples and families affected by grief, loss, illness and trauma. She has advanced training in Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing and trains student and community clinicians in Narrative Exposure Therapy. Her research centers on individual, family and community-based interventions for those affected by stress, crisis and trauma; using relationships to improve student learning outcomes; and providing evidence-based trauma interventions to underserved populations. She maintains a small private practice and has worked in hospital intensive care units, emergency rooms, and community-based crisis centers. (Updated December 2024.)