It’s an immense honor to be awarded the inaugural Outstanding Applied Research Award from the Religious Research Association!

This national award recognizes “outstanding contributions to applied research on religion” evaluated by (1) implications for and impact on religious communities, leaders, and practitioners; (2) accessibility – the extent to which people can find, understand, and use the research; (3) research quality – sound methodology, research design, and adherence to ethical guidelines; and (4) innovation – the advancement of applied religion research in new topics and approaches or new contextualization and applications of past or current topics.

My winning report, How Americans Understand Abortion, was made possible with support from the University of Notre Dame, a fabulous research team (Bridget Ritz, Kendra Hutchens, Maureen Day, and Patricia Tevington), and the 217 ‘everyday Americans’ throughout the United States who participated in in-depth interviews.

I am grateful to RRA for uplifting and celebrating applied research with real-world implications, and look forward to this year’s annual meeting in Salt Lake City, Utah.