Gary graduated from UConn in 1988 with a masters in Marriage and Family Therapy and a bachelors from the School of Family Studies in 1986. He was introduced to HDFS, then called HDFR, at the Waterbury campus before switching his major while attending at Storrs. As an undergraduate he was permitted to take several graduate classes which piqued his interest in becoming a therapist. He was a research and graduate assistant and fondly remembers his days in his office near the Child Labs.
Gary’s career interest has been working in non-profit, urban settings with underserved populations. He attributes much of his success to the training and mentoring he received at UConn. He is the Chief Executive Officer of Wellmore Behavioral Health, a Waterbury-based provider of child, adolescent and adult mental health and substance abuse recovery and support services operating ten sites throughout western Connecticut. Wellmore is the Mobile Crisis Intervention for western Connecticut. He was among the early responders to the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School and helped develop the recovery plan. He is active with charitable, educational and professional organizations in Connecticut, serving on the Board of Directors of several local non-profit organizations as well as having chaired the Board of the Connecticut Community Provider Association (now known as the CT Nonprofit Alliance). He has also served on dozens of local and statewide committees and taskforces regarding early childhood education, mental health, addiction, child abuse and public health policy. He is frequently invited to testify or speak on issues related to child abuse, serving people with disabilities, as well as substance use disorders and mental illness. Gary is grateful for the lifelong personal support he’s received from UConn staff and for the service of dozens of alumni who have joined him at Wellmore.
Jessie joined the UConn HDFS masters program in Fall 2022. She previously earned her bachelor’s in HDFS from UConn in May 2022.
Dr. Keith Bellizzi is trained in gerontology, behavioral medicine, and public health. He has spent the last two decades studying resilience, cancer survivorship, healthy aging, and behavioral change. Prior to joining UConn in 2008, he was a Program Officer and Health Scientist in the Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and graduate of the preeminent Cancer Prevention Fellowship Program at the NCI.
Associate Professor Laura Mauldin was quoted in an article in The Atlantic titled, “Long Covid is Being Erased—Again”. 
Vida Samuel was selected to the 2023 cohort at The Campaign School at Yale (
Professor Keith Bellizzi was featured in UConn Today discussing the problems with replacing human interactions with patient portals in health care settings. 
Professor Rebecca Puhl was recently interviewed by The Associated Press about potential effects of new anti-obesity medications on societal weight stigma.