Acknowledgments

First and foremost, I want to thank Rutgers University Libraries for promoting the importance of creating free Open Educational Resources for students and for providing me with an authoring award to assist in the creation of this OER. My idea for creating an e-book as opposed to a hard copy book was first conceived, and would not have occurred, without the knowledge I gained about the many benefits of OER’s through the RU Library. In particular, I’d like to thank Lily Todorinova, OER Librarian, and Allia Nisa, Master of Information Student. I am indebted to both of these individuals for their guidance and assistance on this project. 

Progressing from my idea to the actual creation of this e-book could not have been realized without the support of additional Rutgers colleagues. Many thanks to Dr. Laura Lawson, Dr. Brian Schilling and Dr. Sara Elnakib for their support of my six-month sabbatical which allowed me the time and attention needed to complete the planning, research and writing. In addition, colleagues and collaborators Dr. Karen Ensle, Dr. Sara Elnakib and Chris Zellers, who each researched and wrote a chapter of this e-book, are enormously thanked for finding a way to fit this commitment into their very busy schedules. I literally could not have created the book without them.

I was also very lucky to have several colleagues from the National Extension Association of Family and Consumer Sciences family agree to peer review one or two of the chapters. Many thanks to Dr. Yu Meng and Andrea Hoover for reviewing two chapters each, and to Lori Wiggins, Kristin Miller, Dr. Karen Lillemor Franck and Ali Mitchell for each of their chapter reviews. Your comments and suggested edits helped immeasurably to create a better text for our students.

And finally, I cannot imagine completing this project without the support and understanding of my loving and patient family. I feel incredibly fortunate to have you all in my life! To my sister Heather, my brother Mark, my children Nicholas, Cara and Jennifer, and my husband Nick I say thank you from the bottom of my heart for everything from your interest in the topics I was researching, to your ability to listen to the stories I had to tell about the process, and your encouragement to carry on when the inevitable stress occurred as life intervened and deadlines became difficult to achieve. And most importantly, to my Mom, whose never-ending enthusiasm for all that I do and why and how I do it has never faded throughout my life, I send immense gratitude for always believing in me.