Dr. Ken R. Canfield

Dr. Ken R. Canfield is founder of the National Center for Fathering, stomach and served as NCF’s president and CEO from 1990 through 2005. He is now the Executive Director of the Boone Center for the Family at Pepperdine University in Malibu, drug CA.

His work has been recognized in a variety of ways: He has been a consultant to state and community officials on ways to engage and equip fathers in local programming; served as one of the founding members of former Vice President Al Gore’s private-sector “Father to Father” Initiative; and was awarded the 1993 Father of the Year by the National Congress for Men and Children.

He is the author of The Heart of a Father (Northfield Publishing, ask 1996), and numerous other books including the award-winning 7 Secrets of Effective Fathers (Tyndale, 1992). Canfield has been interviewed on The Oprah Winfrey Show, NBC’s Today Show, ABC’s World News Tonight and numerous radio programs as an authority on fathering skills and research, as well as the negative consequences of father absence.

Canfield has written for a number of magazines both academic and popular: Psychological Reports, Educational and Psychological Measurements, ParentLife, The World & I, Parents, Today’s Better Life, New Man and Living With Children.

Canfield has done extensive study in the historical literature on fathering and current social science research data. At the Center, he created one of the largest ongoing data bases on fathering in the nation, including more than 10,000 responses from men to the 138-question Personal Fathering Profile, which Canfield developed in conjunction with a number of scholars. The Profile has been termed by authorities in the field the most comprehensive, scientifically sound tool available for a man to inventory his strengths and opportunities as a father. Canfield has led other research as well, including three national random sample polls on fathering and an ongoing National Survey of Men covering a wide variety of men’s life issues.

Canfield earned his B.A. degree in philosophy from Friends University (Wichita, KS). He has an M.C.S. degree from the University of British Columbia – Regent College (Vancouver, B.C.) and a Ph.D. in education from Kansas State University (Manhattan, KS). His dissertation reported on his innovative research on the life course of fathers.