Honoring Richard Brake

At the end of this month, the Institute for Family Studies must bid a fond farewell to Dr. Richard Brake, the man who has led our team with excellence for the last four years. As he hands the reins to incoming executive director, Michael Toscano, we cannot thank Rich enough for his dedicated efforts on behalf of IFS. He leaves us in strength, health, and with a bright future to join St. Michael Academy in Michigan as principal, where he will pursue his first love of teaching and education.

Since Rich joined IFS in 2014, our institutional budget and staff doubled and our Family-Studies blog increased from about 3,000 visitors per month to approximately 180,000. Under his leadership, we also launched a beautiful new website, and we now enjoy regular media appearances in The Atlantic, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, National Review Online, and many other media outlets. During his tenure, we published a number of groundbreaking reports on the family, including:

• The World Family Map 2017 by W. Bradford Wilcox and Laurie DeRose, which was covered by the BBC, Real Clear Policy, Christianity Today, The Week, Deseret News, The Washington Times, Brookings Institution, AEI, and more.
• The Millennial Success Sequence by W. Bradford Wilcox and Wendy Wang, which was featured in The Washington Post, The New York Times, CNBC, and the Administration for Children and Families.
• Black Men Making it in America by W. Bradford Wilcox, Wendy Wang, and Ronald B. Mincy, which was covered by David Brooks in The New York Times and by Deseret News, CNN.com, and the Washington Free Beacon, among others.

This is, of course, only a small sampling of the products we have produced under Rich’s leadership at IFS and does not include the numerous research briefs we have published, which are similarly covered by media outlets. Thanks in large part to Rich’s excellent leadership over the last several years, the word is getting out that strong families make stable societies.

One of Rich’s greatest strengths is his eye for talent and trust in people. He hired, among others, Alysse ElHage, our blog editor, and Wendy Wang, our Director of Research. They are themselves wonderful colleagues and indispensable to our work.

As his close collaborator since 2014, I personally want to thank Rich for his leadership and diligence. He is a shrewd mind, steady hand, and a kind, believing soul. America’s understanding of marriage today has been strengthened due to his efforts.

On behalf of the IFS board, staff, fellows, and contributors, we want to thank Richard Brake for his successful efforts to help grow IFS over the last four years. We wish him well in his important new task of molding and shaping the leaders of tomorrow, and we pledge to make him proud for many years to come.