| SARASOTA, Fla. (Feb. 03, 2020) – Best-selling author Wally Lamb will headline the Duvall Family Studies Conference, “Hidden Heroes: Helping Helpers Get from Empty to Plenty,” at the University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee on Saturday, Feb. 29, from 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., at the campus’ Selby Auditorium, 8350 N. Tamiami Trail, Sarasota.The annual conference showcases clinical work and research with an emphasis on self-care in stressful environments. Lamb will address attendees at 9 a.m. A separate catered reception and book signing with the author is scheduled after the conference in the courtyard outside the auditorium. For more information, including conference and reception fees, visit http://www.usfsm.edu/academics/college-of-liberal-arts-and-social-sciences/duvall-family-studies-initiative.aspx.“In my two decades as a prison writing teacher, I experienced the joys and challenges of helping incarcerated women find their voices, explore their truths and become published writers,” said Lamb. “Why, then, in my 20th year of volunteering, did I burn out and resign my position? With conference attendees, I’ll explore the emotional highs and lows of volunteering at a maximum security prison.”Lamb frequently lectures at colleges and universities nationwide. He is the author of six New York Times best-selling novels: I’ll Take You There, We Are Water, Wishin’ and Hopin’, The Hour I First Believed, I Know This Much is True and She’s Come Undone, and his work has twice been selected for Oprah’s Book Club.He has said of his fiction, “Although my characters’ lives don’t much resemble my own, what we share is that we are imperfect people seeking to become better people. I write fiction so that I can move beyond the boundaries and limitations of my own experiences and better understand the lives of others. That’s also why I teach. As challenging as it sometimes is to balance the two vocations, writing and teaching are, for me, intertwined.”The event marks the 10th anniversary of the Duvall Family Studies Conference, named for American author and teacher Evelyn Millis Duvall (1909-1998), whose work focused primarily on marriage, parenting and family life.Duvall directed the Association for Family Living (1940-1945), served as executive secretary of the National Council on Family Relations (1945-1951), and was program director for the Sarasota Institute of Lifetime Learning.The Duvall Family Studies Conference is organized by the Evelyn M. Duvall Family Studies Initiative, a forum for social workers and other counseling/helping professionals in the Sarasota-Manatee region.The conference unites academicians and practitioners to enable research-driven best practices within human services professions. It strives to promote the most effective and current research about families as well as practical day-to-day advice.The conference provides four continuing education units to Florida Section 591 mental health professionals at no additional charge.To register, or for more information, including conference fees, visit usfsm.edu/academics/college-of-liberal-arts-and-social-sciences/duvall-family-studies-initiative.aspx.For more about USF Sarasota-Manatee, visit www.usfsm.edu.### |
| About USF Sarasota-Manatee (USFSM) USF Sarasota-Manatee is a branch campus of the University of South Florida system, offering the prestige of a nationally ranked research university with the convenience of a hometown location, including classes in Manatee and Sarasota counties, Venice and online. USFSM is ideal for those interested in pursuing a baccalaureate or master’s degree, professional certification, or continuing education credit in a small, personal setting with distinguished faculty and a dynamic curriculum of more than 40 academic programs. Website: www.usfsm.edu. |