Dr. Linda Nielsen

Author

Nationally renowned expert on father-daughter relationships, Dr. Linda Nielsen, has been teaching, conducting research and writing about dads and adult daughters for more than two decades. A member of Phi Beta Kappa and the recipient of the outstanding graduate's award in teacher education from the University of Tennessee in 1969, she taught high school for several years before earning a Master's Degree in Counseling and a Doctorate in Educational Psychology. She joined the faculty of Wake Forest University in Winston Salem, N.C. in 1974, won the Outstanding Author Award in 1980 from the U.S. Center for Women Scholars, and was awarded a postdoctoral fellowship from the American Association of University Women in 1981. She is now serving as the President of the American Coalition for Fathers & Children – the nation’s largest organization working on behalf of shared parenting legislation.  ACFC.org

Her most recent book, Between Fathers and Daughters: Enriching & Rebuilding Your Adult Relationship (Cumberland House, 2008) has been widely acclaimed as a groundbreaking resource for men and their adult daughters. Her previous book, Embracing Your Father: How to Build the Relationship You Always Wanted with Your Dad (McGraw Hill, 2004) was hailed nationwide as an invaluable resource for adult daughters to enrich or rebuild relationships with their dads. She is also the author of How to Motivate Adolescents (Prentice Hall) and Adolescence: A Contemporary View (Harcourt Brace). The recipient of the 1980 Writer’s Award from the National Center for Women Scholars, her articles have appeared in many scholarly journals, including The Harvard Educational Review and the Journal of Divorce & Remarriage.   

Dr. Nielsen’s work on fathers and daughters has been featured in a PBS documentary, Fathers and Daughters: Journeys of the Heart, on NPR with Frank Stasio, and in such newspapers and magazines as The Christian Science Monitor, National PTA Magazine,Military Spouses, Seventeen, & Cosmopolitan. National organizations featuring her work on their web sites include the National Center for Fathering, National Fatherhood Initiative, Dads & Daughters, Fathers in Touch, & Father Magazine, Stepfamily Association of America, National Men’s Resource Center, and Parenting Bookmark. 

Since 1990 she has been teaching the only college course in the country devoted exclusively to father-daughter relationships. Her guests have included nationally syndicated columnist Kathleen Parker, author and activist Rebecca Walker, and three time Super Bowl champion Tim McKyer. For more than two decades, through her writing and courses she has been teaching fathers and daughters how to enrich and rebuild their relationships – especially divorced fathers and their daughters.