Nevada will now have a larger role in influencing policies that create a more equitable world for women and girls.

University officials today announced that the Women's Research Institute of Nevada (WRIN) at UNLV has been selected as a member of the National Council for Research on Women (NCRW), a prestigious network of more than 100 leading U.S. research and policy centers that helps ensure fully-informed debate, policies, and practices that help create more equitable opportunities for women and girls. Among the issues the NCRW and its member centers have most recently addressed include globalization, leadership training, programs that expand science and technology participation for women and girls, and teen pregnancy prevention programs.

WRIN Director Joanne Goodwin says the institute's participation in the network will ensure that women and girls in Nevada will have a stronger voice on issues that will affect their future.

"The NCRW is a clearing house for research on women and girls that receives input from the best researchers in the country," said Goodwin. "As a member center, the WRIN has the opportunity to bring that research back to the state and assist our faculty and students to partake in research projects of national scope as well as on scholarship that directly affects the lives of women and girls here in Nevada."

Membership in the NCRW is selective and is based on the applicant's proven record in research and education, the parent institution's support for the institute, and letters of support from other member centers.

WRIN at UNLV is the only member center in Nevada. Support for WRIN's membership came from the directors of the University of Arizona, Southwest Institute for Research on Women; the University of Michigan, Center for the Education of Women; and Rutgers University, Center for American Women and Politics.

Now in its sixth year, the Women's Research Institute of Nevada was created to foster the social and economic development of Nevadans through the collection, preservation, and analysis of information on women in the state.