César Abadía-Barrero
Associate Professor, Anthropology
Mailing Address
348 Mansfield Road, U-1058
Storrs, CT 06269-1058
Campus: Storrs
Office: Beach Hall (BCH) Room 436
Professional Interests:
- Emerging childhood epidemics and the destruction of living environments
- Children with AIDS
- Privatization of health services
Alaina Brenick
Associate Professor, HDFS
Mailing Address
516 Hartford Times Building
10 Prospect Street
Hartford, CT 06103-2814
Campus: Hartford
Professional Interests:
- The experience of intergroup victimization, discrimination, exclusion, and bullying
- Intergroup attitudes of adolescents and children in areas of high conflict
- Culture, context, and identity and moral reasoning about intergroup relations
- Immigration and conceptions of self and other
- Media, intergroup contact, and stereotypes
Clewiston D. Challenger
Associate Professor of Practice for Counselor Education
Educational Psychology
Mailing Address
Rutgers University, Graduate School of Education
10 Seminary Place
New Brunswick, NJ 08901
Professional Interests:
- High school and college adjustment
- Self-efficacy, sense of belonging, and inclusion
- Race and diversity in education
- Student athletes of color at predominantly white institutions
Annamaria Csizmadia
Associate Professor, HDFS
Mailing Address
One University Place
Stamford, CT 06901-2315
Campus: Stamford
Office: Room 3.36
Professional Interests:
- Multiracial child development
- Interracial marriages and families
- Ethnic-racial minority and immigrant youth development
- Ethnic-racial identity & ethnic-racial socialization
Paul Dworkin
Executive Vice President, Community Child Health
Connecticut Director, Children's Office for Community Child Health
Professor of Pediatrics, UConn Health Center
Mailing Address
10 Columbus Blvd
Hartford, CT 06106
Campus: Hartford
Professional Interests:
- The interface among child development, child health services, and child health policy.
Lisa Eaton
Professor, HDFS
Mailing Address
Library Building
1800 Asylum Ave
West Hartford, CT 06117-2697
Campus: West Hartford
Professional Interests:
- Health and well-being development across the lifespan
- Advanced quantitative methods for the social sciences
- Ecological approaches to disease prevention
- Health disparities interventions and community based programs
Kim Gans
Professor, HDFS
Mailing Address
348 Mansfield Road, U-1058
Storrs, CT 06269-1058
Campus: Storrs
Professional Interests:
- Healthy eating, physical activity, obesity prevention and treatment
- Worksite, school, and home-based interventions
- Food environments for low income and ethnic minority populations
- Health literacy and physician education
- Dietary assessment
Amy Gorin
Professor, Psychological Sciences
Director, InCHIP
Mailing Address
406 Babbidge Road, U-1020
Storrs, CT 06269-1020
Campus: Storrs
Office: Bousfield Psychology Building (BOUS) Room 186B
Professional Interests:
- Treatment strategies to improve long-term weight loss and maintenance.
- Motivational and environmental processes that affect weight control.
- Social influences on weight, eating, and physical activity.
Bernard Grela
Associate Professor, Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences
Mailing Address
850 Bolton Road, U-1085
Storrs, CT 06269-1085
Campus: Storrs
Office: Phillips Communication Sciences Building (PCSB) Room 223
Professional Interests:
- Process of language development in typically developing children and language disorders in children
- Impact of linguistic complexity on grammatical errors in children
Sara Harkness
Professor, HDFS
Director, CHHD
Mailing Address
348 Mansfield Road, U-1058
Storrs, CT 06269-1058
Campus: Storrs
Professional Interests:
- Cultural structuring of human development
- Parents’ cultural belief systems and parenting
- Cognitive, affective. social, and language development in early childhood
- Cultural influences on health at the household and community levels
- Family policy
Derek Houston
Department Head and Professor, Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences
Mailing Address
850 Bolton Road, U-1085
Storrs, CT 06269-1085
Campus: Storrs
Office: Phillips Communication Sciences Building (PCSB) Room 212
Professional Interests:
- Early language development in children with and without hearing loss
- Parent-child interactions
- Community-based participatory research
Maria LaRusso
Assistant Professor, HDFS
Mailing Address
1800 Asylum Ave, Room 316
West Hartford, CT 06117
Campus: West Hartford
Professional Interests:
- Social and emotional development in childhood and adolescence
- Youth risk behaviors
- Clinical and school-based interventions
- Influence of relationships and social contexts on development and intervention outcomes
- Integration of quantitative and qualitative methods
Caitlin Lombardi
Assistant Professor, HDFS
Mailing Address
348 Mansfield Road, U-1058
Storrs, CT 06269-1058
Campus: Storrs
Professional Interests:
- Social policy and child development
- Child care, parental employment, and early education
- Economic and parenting supports for low-income families
- Statistical and methodological procedures for studying human development
Caroline Mavridis
Assistant Research Professor, HDFS
Associate Director, CHHD
Mailing Address
348 Mansfield Road, U-1058
Storrs, CT 06269-1058
Campus: Storrs
Professional Interests:
- The role of cultural context in parenting and children’s development
- Mothers’ beliefs and experiences related to motherhood, self-care and well-being
- Evaluation of programs to educate and empower frontline family workers
- Family workers’ self-care and well-being
- Culture and climate in human services organizations
Stephanie Milan
Associate Professor, Psychological Sciences
Mailing Address
406 Babbidge Road, U-1020
Storrs, CT 06269-1020
Campus: Storrs
Office Location: Bousfield Psychology Building (BOUS) Room 174
Professional Interests:
- Links between mental health and reproductive health in high-risk adolescence
- Adolescent parenthood
- Intergenerational effects of child maltreatment and family violence
- Family functioning in the context of maternal mental illness
Letitia Naigles
Professor/DEV Division Head, Psychological Sciences
Vice President, International Association for the Study of Child Language
Mailing Address
406 Babbidge Road, U-1020
Storrs, CT 06269-1020
Campus: Storrs
Office Location: Bousfield Psychology Building (BOUS) Room 141
Professional Interests:
- Language acquisition across languages and etiologies
- Language acquisition in neurodivergent and neurotypical children
- Interacting roles of linguistic input and linguistic/cognitive/social/neurological predispositions in children's acquisition of word meaning, sentence structure, and discourse patterns
MaryAnn Perez-Brescia
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Coordinator
Nursing Faculty, School of Nursing
Mailing Address
231 Glenbrook Road, U-4026
Storrs, CT 06269-1020
Campus: Storrs
Office: Storrs Hall (STRS) Room 209
Professional Interests:
- Health equity
- Diversity and inclusion in health professions
- Advancing racial equity in education
Michael J. Puglisi
Assistant Extension Professor, Nutritional Science
Mailing Address
27 Manter Road, U-4017
Storrs, CT 06269
Campus: Storrs
Office Location: Roy E. Jones Building (JONS) Room 210
Professional Interests:
- Focus on low-income programs and underserved populations
- Food security
- Public health nutrition policy
- Physical activity in outdoor spaces
- Online nutrition education and technology in public health programs
Nairán Ramírez-Esparza
Associate Professor, Psychological Sciences
Mailing Address
406 Babbidge Road, U-1020
Storrs, CT 06269-1020
Campus: Storrs
Office Location: Bousfield Psychology Building (BOUS) Room 181
Professional Interests:
- Cultural influences on personality, behavior, health, and development
- Language influences on personality, behavior, health, and development
Nancy Schmieder Redeker
Professor, School of Nursing
Mailing Address
231 Glenbrook Road, U-4026
Storrs, CT 06269-1020
Campus: Storrs
Office: Storrs Hall (STRS) Room 313
Professional Interests:
- Sleep health, deficiency, disorders, and promotion interventions
- Cardiovascular health
- Health equity
Adam Silverman
Director, Center for Global Health
Pediatric Critical Care, Pediatric Emergency Medicine
Associate Professor of Pediatrics
Mailing Address
Connecticut Children's Medical Center
282 Washington Street
Hartford, CT 06106
Campus: Hartford
Professional Interests:
- Pediatric critical care and emergency medicine
- Methodologies for improving child healthcare in developing countries
Rhiannon Smith
Associate Professor, Psychological Sciences
Mailing Address
406 Babbidge Road, U-1020
Storrs, CT 06269-1020
Campus: Storrs
Office Location: Bousfield Psychology Building (BOUS) Room 154
Professional Interests:
- Friendships and peer relations in childhood and adolescence
- Cross-ethnic friendships
- Social and emotional development
- Peer group experiences of LGBTQIA+ youth
Marianne Snyder
Assistant Clinical Professor, School of Nursing
Mailing Address
231 Glenbrook Road, U-4026
Storrs, CT 06269-4026
Campus: Storrs
Office Location: Storrs Hall (STRS) Room 208
Professional Interests:
- LGBTQ and other marginalized and vulnerable populations
- Adults with developmental disabilities
Charles M. Super
Professor, HDFS
Co-Director, CHHD
Mailing Address
348 Mansfield Road, U-1058
Storrs, CT 06269-1058
Campus: Storrs
Professional Interests:
- Cultural regulation of human development, particularly during infancy and childhood
- Parental and professional ethnotheories of child development and behavior
- Interventions to promote the physical and mental health of children and families
- Mixed methods research design and data analysis
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Marea Tsamaase
Lecturer & Coordinator, Child Development Laboratory
Faculty of Education, Family and Consumer Science
Mailing Address
University of Botswana
Plot 4775 Notwane Rd
Gaborone
Botswana
Professional Interests:
- Early childhood education
- Education for sustainable development
- Culture and human development
Saskia D. M. van Schaik
Assistant Professor, Philosophy of Behavioral Sciences
Assistant Professor, Department of Pedagogic Sciences and Education
Leadership Team Member, CHHD
Mailing Address
Radboud University
Houtlaan 4
6525 XZ Nijmegen
The Netherlands
Professional Interests:
- Culture and preschool education
- Group processes in preschool education
- Parental ethnotheories, practices, and early childhood development
Ryan Watson
Associate Professor, HDFS
Mailing Address
348 Mansfield Road, U-1058
Storrs, CT 06269-1058
Campus: Storrs
Professional Interests:
- Sexual/Gender Minority Youth and Young Adult Health
- Family Acceptance and Rejection
- Intersections of Family, School, and Sexuality
- Hooking Up and Sexual Health
- Mixed-methodologies
Dimitris Xygalatas
Associate Professor, Anthropology
Mailing Address
348 Mansfield Road, U-1058
Storrs, CT 06269-1058
Campus: Storrs
Office Location: Beach Hall (BCH) Room 432
Professional Interests:
- Cooperation, resilience, rituals
- Interaction between cognition and culture
- Cultural practices on psychophysiological wellbeing
Na Zhang
Assistant Professor, HDFS
Mailing Address
One University Place
Stamford, CT 06901-2315
Campus: Stamford & Storrs
Office Location: Room 3.35C & Beach Hall (BCH) Room 123C
Professional Interests:
- The intrapersonal and interpersonal benefits of mindfulness in diverse contexts
- Resilience in youth who were affected by traumatic stress or adversities
- Group- and web-based parenting interventions for preventing youth mental health problems