Tamara Afifi is a Professor in the Department of Communication at UCSB. Most of her research focuses on how family members cope communicatively with various challenges they face. When examining her research program, two primary themes emerge: (1) information regulation (privacy, secrets, disclosure, avoidance) in parent-child and dating relationships, and (2) communication processes related to uncertainty, loss, stress and coping in families, with particular emphasis on post-divorce families. Professor Afifi was the recipient of the Young Scholar Award from the InternationalCommunication Association in 2006 and the Brommel Award from the National Communication Association in 2011 for a distinguished career of research in family communication. She has also won several other research awards, including the Franklin Knower Article Award in 2004 and the Distinguished Article Award in 2008 from the National Communication Association. Finally, she has received numerous teaching awards, including a Distinguished Teaching Award from the faculty senate at UCSB in 2009. In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.* (*Subject to certain rules and regulations)