Meet FIS Founder, Dr. Joan Comeau
Joan Comeau,
Ph.D., CFLE, is founder and president of Family Information Services, an
organization that offers resources and professional development for anyone who
works with, or teaches about, parenting and family life.
She holds a Ph.D. in Family Social Science from the University of Minnesota and an M.A. in Counseling Psychology from Chapman University, Orange, CA. Her B.S. was in Home Economics Education from Iowa State University. She is an adjunct faculty member in the School of Human Services at Capella University and the Family Education Program in the College of Education of Concordia University, St. Paul, where she teaches undergraduate and graduate courses online. She has also taught in the Department of Family Social Science, University of Minnesota.
She is recognized by the National Council on Family Relations (NCFR) as a Certified Family Life Educator (CFLE). She is a past President of the Minnesota Council on Family Relations and past Chair of the Education & Enrichment Section and in that role was a member of the Board of Directors of NCFR. Joan was a member of the Advisory Board to the Department of Family Social Science, College of Human Ecology, University of Minnesota (2004-2006).
In 1995, she received an award for Outstanding Service to the Certified Family Life Educator Program of NCFR. The National Parents' Day Coalition, Washington, DC awarded Joan and Family Information Services the 1997 Phoenix Award for “excellence in developing and implementing a program that creates awareness about the need for responsible parenting and parental involvement in the child's development.” As part of their centennial celebration (1900-2000), Joan was recognized by the University of Minnesota's College of Human Ecology as one of the Century's 100 Outstanding Friends & Alumni “whose life and work illuminates the breadth, diversity, and spirit of the College of Human Ecology.” In 2001, Joan was named Parent Educator of the Year by the Texas-based Practical Parent Education Program, for her leadership in providing resources and continuing education to parent educators across the country. In 2005 she was recognized by the National Association of Catholic Family Life Ministers "in acknowledgment of significant contributions to family life ministry" and received the Ruth Hathaway Jewson Award given by the Minnesota Council on Family Relations for her contributions to the family field. In November, 2006 she received the Arcus Award for Life Long Achievement in Family Life Education from the National Council on Family Relations.
Her work for the past 30 years has focused on human development and family education: teaching family and consumer sciences at the secondary level; counseling and providing parent/family education in a community mental health center (working with both civilian and Air Force families); and staff training in parent and family education for family educators, counselors, social workers, clergy and nurses. Her doctoral work focused on family stress and coping, working with Dr. Hamilton McCubbin, Dr. David Olson, and the late Dr. Reuben Hill.
She is co-author of numerous articles related to family stress including the 1980 Decade Review of Family Stress and Coping Literature in Journal of Marriage and the Family, a chapter on Work & Family Seminars in the 1991 American Association of Family & Consumer Science Yearbook. She was cofounder of the Vocational Education Work and Family Institute (1980-86) developing a national replication program to train family educators in 20 states to design and deliver Work and Family Seminars at the worksite. She also coauthored a two volume curricula, Balancing Work and Family. She has developed, coordinated and/or edited many other curricula and resource materials and professional development conferences. She has planned and edited 18 volumes of the Family Information Services professional development program from 1989-2007, working with over a hundred guest faculty and serving hundreds of professionals each year. In 2007 she spearheaded the transtion of Family Informaton Services to the Parent & Family Eductor's Resource Library, offered to educators and practitioners in a searchable PDF format.
She founded Family Information Services in 1989. In addition to managing Family Information Services, Dr. Comeau continues to teach, consult and present professional development workshops. She has been married to her partner and husband, Bob, since 1971 and has two adult children, Brent, a high school band director and Adrienne, who works in the health insurance industry.
