CONGRATULATIONS to CARLA GOMEZ who retired in December 2021, after more than 20 years at UConn HDFS!
Carla joined the School of Family Studies in 2000 for a 10 day temporary position that turned into more than two decades of work. Carla earned her bachelors degree in Physical Education from Central Connecticut State University. Prior to working at UConn, she held positions at Coventry High School as a physical education teacher, Charter Hospital of Tampa Bay in Florida as the Director of Activity Therapy, and worked in the Willington Public Schools.
In the School of Family Studies, which subsequently became the Department of Human Development and Family Studies, and later, the Department of Human Development and Family Sciences, Carla held a range of different positions. Most recently, she served as the HDFS Educational Program Administrator for a number of years. Carla served as the face of the department, often the first person that future faculty and students met when visiting the department. In this role, she supported students, staff, faculty, and alumni in every imaginable task. Her responsibilities were wide ranging, including budgets, staffing, HR and payroll, hiring, merit and PTR, building and space management, departmental lectures and events, and countless other things (including loaning out staplers, directing lost students in hallways, and helping faculty from other departments set up equipment in classrooms down the hall). To quote Professor Emeritus Steve Wisensale, Carla is “the best of the best.”
Carla’s plans for retirement include traveling – including a long awaited trip to Vancouver to see her son – as well as volunteering, biking in the summer and snowshoeing in the winter! She will be greatly missed within the HDFS department, but the HDFS students, staff, and faculty know how much she has earned this next stage, and wishes for her an empty inbox and no more frazzled last minute requests from colleagues.