Welcome to the Department of Human Development and Family Sciences!

We recently welcomed new undergraduate and graduate students to the department, with a record size graduate student cohort.  Four HDFS faculty were recently promoted: Professor Kari Adamsons to Professor, Professors Terry Berthelot and Vida Samuel to Associate Professors-in-Residence, and Professor Maria LaRusso to Associate Professor with tenure! Our HDFS community continues to demonstrate their commitment to excellence in research, teaching, and community engagement in innumerable ways. It’s impossible to briefly summarize all the recent news in HDFS. However, here are some highlights:

Research:

HDFS faculty and graduate students dedicate most of their research to improving the physical, mental, and social well-being of individuals. Some key examples include

• Preston Britner’s research on interventions for families with children in foster care, including college preparatory programs for high school youth in foster care.
• Kim Gans’ research on interventions to improve eating habits, prevent/control obesity, and/or increase physical activity from early childhood to older adulthood, with a focus on low-income and ethnic minority populations.
• Sarah Rendon Garcia’s research on mixed-status immigrant families originating from Latin America, and how both children and adults grapple with the implications of being undocumented in the United States

Teaching and Mentoring:

• Professor Cora D’Alessandro led the establishment of the early childhood specialization to be available to all UConn Waterbury students!
• HDFS Professors Beth Russell and Kari Adamsons received grants to develop two new courses: a 1000-level course on The Science of Individual and Family Wellbeing, and a 2000 level course on Diverse Family Structures in the U.S.

Community Engagement and Outreach:

• Marketa Burnett presented to school leaders at the Connecticut Association of Independent Schools (CAIS) Spring Leadership Conference
• Rachel Chazan Cohen participated in a congressional briefing highlighting the importance of federal investments for babies and their families.
• Marlene Schwartz and the Rudd Center have launched the new Wellness School Assessment Tool (WellSAT) website: https://www.srcd.org/policy-engagement/us-federal-leadership-transition

It was another award-winning year for our community. As a few examples:

• Kari Adamsons received the 2023-2024 Alumni Faculty Excellence Award in Graduate Teaching.
• Alaina Brenick will be the 25-26AY UConn Hartford Faculty Leadership Fellow.
• Annamaria Csizmadia received the 2023-2024 Alumni Faculty Excellence Award in Undergraduate Teaching.
• Laura Donorfio is a newly elected Fellow of the Gerontological Society of America.
• Vanessa Esquivel became a 2024 Early Care and Education Research Scholars: Head Start Dissertation Grant.
• Madeline Hebert and Peter McCauley received 2025 Wood/Raith Living Trust Summer Fellowships.
• Keely Rodriguez won the 2025 Outstanding Senior Women Academic Award
• Beth Russell received the 2025 InCHIP Community-Engaged Health Research Excellence Award.
• Na Zhang received the 2025 InCHIP Junior Faculty Research Excellence Award.

HDFS faculty’s research, and the training that HDFS graduate and undergraduate students engage in, are critical for addressing some of the major concerns of our society. Our faculty, staff, and students continue their important work to understand individuals and families in context, and continue their missions of teaching, research, and service to the university, the community, the state, the nation, and the world.