The Racial and Ethnic Diversity in Families Section of the National Council on Family Relations (NCFR) awarded the 2026 Professional Best Paper Award to Deziah Bermudez, a former Postdoc in the department, and Melinda Gonzales Backen, Associate Professor and Associate Chair of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Bermudez's paper, "'You got this!': The impact of parental academic support on the self-efficacy and adjustment of college students of color", examines academic and mental health outcomes among college students of color. Findings indicated that self-efficacy was a mechanism through which parental academic support promoted positive academic and mental health outcomes, especially for first-generation students. The award will be presented during the annual NCFR conference in Minneapolis, MN.