Author: Janice Berriault

Kaleigh Ligus (PhD ’23), HDFS Grad Student Spotlight, Sept 2023

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Kaleigh LigusKaleigh Ligus recently completed her Ph.D. in HDFS, with a specialization in Adulthood, Aging and Gerontology. Her career began at the UConn Health Center on Aging in 2015 and she has since dedicated herself to serving older adults living with chronic disease. Kaleigh completed her Master’s in HDFS in 2019. Shortly after, she joined the Ph.D. program under her advisor, Dr. Keith Bellizzi.

Kaleigh successfully defended her dissertation on rural aging in June. In her dissertation she used secondary data collected by the National Health and Aging Trends Study to analyze chronic disease self-management and health outcomes in over 1,000 Medicare beneficiaries. She found novel results, that she hopes to publish soon, of how aging-in-place impacts health outcomes and further highlights demographic nuance among older rural Americans.

Driven by a dedication to understanding how policy impacts health outcomes, Kaleigh broadened her professional horizons by working in two external positions during her graduate school career. Kaleigh served as the Greg O’Neill Policy Intern for the Gerontological Society of America in summer 2021 and served as the inaugural Health Policy Fellow at AcademyHealth in summer 2022. Over these two summers, she worked with like-minded community collaborators and political leaders to advocate for health policy change.

Kaleigh is excited about her next steps. She recently joined the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) as a Social Science Research Analyst. In this role she will work on developing, implementing and evaluating new CMS patient care models aimed at improving Medicare beneficiaries’ health care experiences and health outcomes.

During her down time, Kaleigh can be found running around the state, gardening, embroidering, and slowing down to cherish life’s journey with her husband and family.

Caitlin Lombardi, HDFS Faculty Spotlight, September 2023

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Caitlin was tenured and promoted to Associate Professor effective August, 2023!

Caitlin Lombardi

Caitlin Lombardi is an applied developmental psychologist. Her program of research falls at the convergence of social policy and child development with an overarching goal of understanding how social policy can best promote children’s healthy development and family well-being. She employs quantitative techniques using large nationally representative surveys of children and families to investigate central contributors to individual differences in children’s development and mechanisms within communities, schools, and families that explain differences in children’s cognitive, language, socioemotional, and health outcomes. In her recent work, she also utilizes mixed methods approaches to integrate quantitative and qualitative data. All of Caitlin’s work is informed by social science theories, which recognize strengths within individuals and families and the influences of social stratification and proximal and distal environmental characteristics on developmental processes. Taken together, her research seeks to document the processes through which socioeconomic and sociocultural experiences influence children’s development to inform social policies and programs that seek to support children and families.

Caitlin grew up in Maine and attended the University of Vermont (UVM) where she received a B.A. in English and Psychology. While at UVM, she was a rower on the crew team, tutor in the writing center, tour guide for the admissions office, and intern at the Vermont Commission on Women. Her interest in research and the role of policy in child development was sparked through the undergraduate honors program, where she wrote her senior honors thesis on educational inequalities in the K-12 schooling system. Following her undergraduate degree, she was a staff assistant and then a legislative staffer for U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy in his Washington D.C. office. In this position, she met with constituents, wrote correspondence, and drafted statements on health and social policy issues. Her interest in conducting research to inform these policies drew her to graduate school. She subsequently completed a Ph.D. in Applied Developmental and Educational Psychology at Boston College (BC), and then remained at BC for an additional two years as a Postdoctoral Fellow.

In 2016, Caitlin joined the UConn HDFS department as an Assistant Professor. At UConn, Caitlin teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on child development, policy, and research methods. She serves as a faculty member of the Early Childhood Program committee, which runs the Early Childhood Specializations (ECS) program. Caitlin is the Co-Chair of the Science and Social Policy Committee of the Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD) and is an Associate Editor for Applied Developmental Science. Funded by the federal government, the state of Connecticut, and private foundations, her research focuses on early care and education and children’s school readiness, the contributions of home environments to income-based achievement gaps, and the role of social policies in the health and development of children and families.

Outside of work, Caitlin enjoys spending time with her husband, Scott, and their three energetic children, ages 10, 8, and 5. She loves outdoor activities, especially time at the beach.

Hilal Kuscul and Kari Adamsons awarded for published research paper

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Hilal Kuscul
Kuscul
Kari Adamsons
Adamsons

Visiting Assistant Professor Hilal Kuscul and Associate Professor Kari Adamsons received the 2023 Best New Professional Research Article Award from the National Council on Family Relations and the Men in Families Focus Group Award Review Committee for their paper, A Personal and Relational Model of Father Identity Construction, published in the Journal of Family Theory & Review.

Jessica Dunn, HDFS Alumni Spotlight, August 2023

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Jessica DunnJessica graduated Magna Cum Laude from UConn in 2012 with a B.A. double major in HDFS and Sociology. While studying at UConn, Jessica was involved in Community Outreach activities such as Habitat for Humanity, volunteering with the American Red Cross, serving as an active student member of the Office of Early College Programs Advisory Board, and a student employee in the UConn Early College Experience (ECE) Office. During high school, Jessica enrolled in a UConn HDFS course through the UConn ECE Program which sparked her interest in the field and provided her a head start on her degree. Not only did her experience through UConn ECE guide her to choose HDFS as a major, but it was also the foundation for her future and career in providing equitable access to higher education.

After graduating, Jessica was hired as the Registration Coordinator for UConn ECE where she developed and maintained student registration processes for over 11,000 students annually who were enrolled in UConn courses during high school. After 5 years in this role, Jessica was hired as the Assistant Director in the Office of Early College Programs and the Director of Student Enrichment for UConn ECE. Jessica continues to oversee student registration for the program and develops and implements engaging academic enrichment opportunities for high school students. Jessica is committed to promoting enrollment growth and accessibility through development of new academic opportunities and financial support to CT high schools and students in need. Jessica has presented at national conferences and to the Connecticut State Department of Education, as well as represented UConn ECE at regional conferences, high school forums, and educator workshops. Jessica is dedicated to the mission of providing access to, and preparation for, higher education. She attributes her drive and passion to her UConn HDFS background and the opportunities she was given with the UConn ECE Program.

Outside of her work at UConn, Jessica is a member of a Connecticut high school residential boarding program which serves a diverse population of teenagers from more than 17 states and 28 countries. Jessica is an on-campus dorm parent where she lives with her husband and three children. She is fortunate to be able to work with high school students in multiple capacities across her roles, and values providing direct care, support, mentorship, and most importantly an educational experience outside of the classroom to the students she lives with. Teaching students tolerance, the value of diversity, and interpersonal skills are included in the high school mission and align strongly with Jessica’s core values and goals in life.

Lindsay Westberg, HDFS Grad Student Spotlight, August 2023

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Linday 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 dissertation work was an extension of what she learned throughout this experience. In her dissertation, she used 20+ years of Department of Children and Families (DCF) data on families who have been involved in TCI’s supportive housing program to assess long-term child welfare outcomes for these families. Lindsay successfully defended her dissertation on July 28th, 2023 and will officially graduate this month.

Lindsay’s involvement with evaluation research 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 which, in turn, 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 learned 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 carries out best-practices in their work.