Month: March 2022

Terry Berthelot, HDFS Faculty Spotlight, March 2022

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Assistant Professor in Residence

Terry BerthelotTerry Berthelot joined the Human Development and Family Sciences Department in 2016. Her research and advocacy efforts are primarily about access to healthcare for people who are over sixty-five and for people living with disabilities.

She received her master’s degree in social work (MSW) from Syracuse University after which she worked for the city of Syracuse as a community developer. She then moved to Mississippi, where she created and then directed a Joint Commission Accredited hospice program. Finding herself fascinated by the legal and ethical questions surrounding death and dying, Terry pursued her law degree at the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss). Terry won the Christopher P. Charlton Memorial Scholarship, endowed by John Grisham for students pursuing social justice careers. While at Ole Miss, Terry worked for a local attorney doing post-conviction death penalty mitigation.

After graduating, cum laude, Terry joined the Center for Medicare Advocacy (CMA), a national not-for-profit law firm. As a senior attorney, Terry oversaw CMA’s advocacy efforts. She also provided legal advice and representation to Medicare beneficiaries unfairly denied Medicare coverage or access to healthcare, wrote articles for national publications, produced educational materials, engaged in educational outreach activities with a particular focus on the Medicare hospice benefit, was a contributing author to the Medicare Handbook, and served as co-counsel for federal class action lawsuits challenging improper Medicare policies. Also, while with CMA, Terry was the lead Medicare trainer for Connecticut’s State Health Insurance Assistance Program and for Connecticut’s Medicare Senior Patrol.

Terry is a former chair of the steering committee for the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys’ (NAELA) Health Care Section, and she is a former Connecticut liaison for National Healthcare Decisions Day. Terry is currently a member of the NAELA News editorial board.  She lives in Mansfield, Connecticut, where she is a member of the Town Council. She also serves on the board of directors for two local not-for-profits, the Mansfield Discovery Depot and United Services. Terry and her spouse have one amazing teen-age daughter and a new puppy. They spend their summers cruising on their sailboat, Finisterre.

Dr. Rona J. Karasik, HDFS Alumni Spotlight, March 2022

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BA ’96 Psychology, MS ’89 HDFS

Rona J. KarasikRona J. Karasik, Ph.D., FAGHE, FGSA is a Professor and Director of the Gerontology Program at St. Cloud State University. Rona, daughter of UConn alumni Gail Zieky Karasik (BS ’58 Pharmacy) and Sheldon Karasik (BS ’57 Pharmacy), graduated from UConn with a BA in Psychology (1986) and an MS in Family Studies with an emphasis in Gerontology (1989). Using the skills she learned from her Family Studies mentors (Dr. Nancy Sheehan, Dr. Tom Blank, Dr. Steve Wisensale, and Dr. Lucille Nahemow), Rona went on to earn her doctorate in Individual and Family Studies from the University of Delaware in 1993. That same year, Rona joined the faculty at St. Cloud State University in St. Cloud MN (where hockey, not basketball, reigns). She has taught Gerontology and conducted research there ever since.

Over the years, Rona’s research focus turned from family caregiving and senior housing to experiential learning and gerontological pedagogy. She is the author of numerous publications and presentations on gerontology internships, service-learning, classroom- and community-based activities, and incorporating anti-racist pedagogy into the gerontological curriculum. Teaching has become a passion for Rona – a fact that may surprise her Family Studies classmates who knew her to have a fear of public speaking.

Rona holds fellow status in both the Academy for Gerontology in Higher Education (AGHE) and the Gerontological Society of America (GSA) and is the recipient of local and national teaching awards, including AGHE’s “Distinguished Faculty” award. Currently, Rona is working with colleagues, including UConn HDFS Professor Dr. Laura Donorfio, on a textbook for gerontology interns. Most recently, Rona was appointed editor-in-chief of Gerontology & Geriatrics Education, the official journal of the Academy for Gerontology in Higher Education. 

As for her greatest accomplishments, Rona points to the two daughters she and husband, UConn alum Laurin Hafner, Ph.D., have raised. Their eldest is currently a doctoral candidate at Cornell University and their youngest will be graduating this spring as a 3rd generation UConn Husky!

Lindsay Westberg, M.A., HDFS Grad Student Spotlight, March 2022

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Lindsay WestbergLindsay joined UConn’s HDFS department in 2015 after graduating with her bachelor’s degree in psychology from Gettysburg College. For much of her graduate career, she worked with Dr. Preston Britner on the evaluation team of the Connecticut site of a federal demonstration project called Partnerships to Demonstrate the Effectiveness of Supportive Housing for Families in the Child Welfare System. There she worked with the Connecticut nonprofit service provider, The Connection Inc. (TCI), to assess whether a more intensive supportive housing program provided value-added to families involved in the child welfare system. She also wrote reports on topics such as the benefits of a scattered-site housing approach and peer mentoring for child welfare-involved families. Lindsay’s ongoing dissertation work is an extension of what she learned throughout this experience. In this project, she uses 20+ years of DCF data on families who have been involved in TCI’s supportive housing program, to assess the long-term impacts of this program on child welfare outcomes.

Lindsay’s involvement with this evaluation and exposure to the nonprofit sector sparked an interest that she wanted to explore further. As a result, she pursued two graduate certificates at UConn – one in Program Evaluation and one in Nonprofit Management. Lindsay enjoyed both of these experiences and solidified her interest in pursuing a career in which she could combine her background in HDFS with program evaluation and the nonprofit sector.

In October of 2021, Lindsay found a position that would allow her to do just that. She is now the Evaluation Manager at The Home for Little Wanderers in Massachusetts. The Home is the oldest child welfare agency in the U.S. and provides services to children and young adults including foster care and adoption services, behavioral health services, group homes, special education schools, and residential programs for transition age youth. In her new position, Lindsay has been learning a great deal about The Home’s approach to practice including trauma-informed care, restorative practices, and achieving permanency for youth. Some of Lindsay’s responsibilities include managing a follow-up project where families are interviewed about youths’ well-being after discharge from The Home’s services, quarterly data reporting, helping programs remain compliant with funders’ reporting requirements, and developing new evaluation strategies to assess how effectively The Home is carrying out best-practices in their work.

In her spare time, Lindsay enjoys spoiling her puppy, Hodie; trying new foods and cuisines, and traveling every chance she gets.