The Child Labs participated in PJ Day for the Kids on Friday 12/12. Children, teachers and college students wore pjs and donated money to CT Children’s Medical Center (CCMC). PJ Day for the Kids is a statewide program where children all over CT wear PJs to school to keep children who spend their days in hospitals in their pjs in mind. PJ Day is a fundraiser for CCMC’s Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders. The Child Labs community raised $303.50 towards this state wide fundraiser which had participation in every town.
Author: Magnoli, Jennifer
2026 Undergraduate Awards
Congratulations to the 2026 undergraduate awardees!
Award for Outstanding Undergraduate Involvement in HDFS Research: Elena Falbo
Awarded annually in the spring to an undergraduate HDFS major from any campus who has contributed in an outstanding way to research in the field of Human Development and Family Sciences. Research must have been conducted during the student’s time at the University of Connecticut.
Outstanding Senior in HDFS: Kaitlyn Kibling
Awarded annually in the spring to an undergraduate HDFS major graduating in December, May, or August from any campus who has demonstrated excellence in the field of HDFS through at least two of the following areas: academics, leadership, research, and/or service. Examples of how students might demonstrate excellence in these areas related to the field of HDFS:
- Academics: Student has taken honors or graduate coursework in HDFS and excelled; student has consistently received exceptional grades and received recognition for their overall GPA (e.g., Dean’s list, honors scholar, university scholar, Babbidge Scholar, New England Scholar, honors societies)
- Leadership: Student has taken on leadership roles in HDFS-related student or other organizations; student has shown initiative in conducting original HDFS research; student has organized HDFS-related events
- Research: Student has engaged in original research in the field of HDFS or contributed significantly and independently to an HDFS faculty mentor’s research; student has presented or had work on which they were an author presented at a conference or has submitted a paper for publication
- Service: Student has engaged in outstanding levels of service to the department, the university, the community, and/or the field of HDFS. Service may consist of activities such as serving on committees, organizing or participating in events, or volunteering.
Heather Price, Alumni Spotlight, May 2026
Heather Price has always known she wanted to help others and create meaningful change. As a student at UConn Waterbury, she initially thought the only way to achieve this goal was through direct service as a social worker. During her time in the Human Development and Family Studies program, however, she discovered how comprehensive the field truly is and how policies, programs, and community partnerships are just as vital as direct service in supporting individuals and families across the lifespan. Her service-learning, internships, and on-campus employment helped her explore career paths, gain professional experience, and build confidence for life after graduation.
After earning her degree, Heather served as an AmeriCorps VISTA in Portland, Oregon, where she served as Volunteer and Development Coordinator. She continued her career at KairosPDX, a public charter school and nonprofit, advancing from Administrative Assistant to Operations Coordinator. In 2019, Heather returned to UConn Waterbury, where she has held multiple roles. She last served as Director of Community Innovation, leading campus-wide public engagement, managing partnerships with nonprofits, businesses, and government agencies, and developing service-learning and internship opportunities for students. While working full-time, Heather also earned her Master’s of Public Administration at UConn, expanding her ability to design and lead impactful, student-centered initiatives.
Heather now serves as Program Administrator for Public Awareness at Eversource. She collaborates with internal departments, develops communications and programming, and conducts outreach across Connecticut and Massachusetts. She works closely with internal teams and engages residents, as well as public and emergency officials, to promote natural gas safety.
Outside of work, Heather enjoys road trips, exploring new cities, hiking, and practicing yoga. She loves returning to Oregon to visit friends and the coast and appreciates being back in New England, close to family and able to enjoy all four seasons.
Yuanyuan Zhang, Graduate Student Spotlight, May 2026
Yuanyuan (Sunny) Zhang is an HDFS PhD candidate on track to complete her degree in August 2026. She began her academic journey studying applied psychology at both the Bachelor’s and Master’s levels in China. During her last year of college, while navigating academic stress, she first encountered mindfulness — and the experience left a lasting impression of relaxation, joy, and self-care. During her Master’s program, she went on to lead mindfulness groups for participants of all ages, from elementary school children to older adults. Over time, she came to a simple realization: mindfulness and research didn’t just create change for others — they gave her own life a sense of meaning and purpose. That conviction carried her into doctoral study.
At UConn, Yuanyuan works under the guidance of Dr. Beth Russell. Currently for her dissertation she is collaborating with Dr. Russell and Sihui Lyu on a culturally tailored mindfulness and yoga intervention designed specifically for Chinese international students. The study is a four-week, two-arm randomized controlled trial aiming to reduce acculturative stress and improve mental health, emotional well-being, and executive functioning. The team has already enrolled over 40 participants, with recruitment still underway. Alongside her intervention work, Yuanyuan has a strong interest in evidence synthesis. Her first dissertation paper is a systematic review and meta-analysis on mindfulness-based interventions and executive functioning among emerging adults aged 18–25. She found a significant moderate overall effect of mindfulness on executive functioning, with particularly promising results for inhibition and updating. Beyond research, Yuanyuan is passionate about teaching. She has been the instructor for Adulthood & Aging (HDFS 2200) for the past two semesters — an experience shaped by the thoughtful mentorship of Dr. Candi Nwakasi, whose guidance on teaching style and classroom management has meant a great deal to her.
Looking ahead, Yuanyuan plans to keep building on her work in mindfulness intervention and meta-analysis. She hopes to develop programs that support college students navigating the school-to-work transition, with a focus on work-life balance, and to conduct larger-scale meta-analyses of mindfulness RCTs. She is currently exploring postdoctoral opportunities and looking forward to what comes next.
Outside of her academic life, Yuanyuan enjoys meditation, baking, painting, and making handmade crafts.
Laura Donorfio, Faculty Spotlight, May 2026
Dr. Laura Donorfio has been a part of the HDFS Department since 1989, receiving her MA and PhD with concentrations in adulthood, aging, and gerontology and intergenerational relationships. During graduate school, Laura’s research focused on family caregiving and filial responsibility. Laura was one of the first in her field to qualitatively capture the dyadic, lived experiences of caregiving daughters and care-receiving mothers. Laura also spent time during graduate school working with the Connecticut Departments of Education and Aging on the Connecticut Aging Awareness Project (AoA grant), developing curricula on aging and intergenerational exchange projects to promote education for, with, and about older adults in an aging society. At that time, Connecticut was one of only three states to advance generations’ education through K-12 schools. Upon graduation, Laura was recruited by The Hartford Financial Services Group (HFSG) as a corporate gerontologist and director of qualitative consumer research, conducting primary, applied research with AARP and the MIT AgeLab where she served as a visiting scientist. In this capacity, Laura utilized a myriad of qualitative methods, including facilitating over 400 focus groups nationally. One of her key research projects was a mixed-methods study with the MIT AgeLab involving a national survey of over 10,000 older drivers to help understand how they can continue driving safer for a longer period through utilizing various self-regulation strategies. Laura was featured on both WNPR’s Where We Live and the Connecticut Television Network (CT-N) to discuss this research and the health and safety implications for older drivers and families surrounding various transportation options and the decision to continue driving. During this time, Laura continued to teach at UConn and the University of Hartford. Upon leaving HFSG, Laura took a one year visiting faculty position at UConn’s A.J. Pappanikou Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities as a marketing director concentrating on community and political engagement and website development.
In 2004 Laura joined the HDFS department at UConn Waterbury (she believes fate was involved as she was born in Waterbury). It was the first year that students were able to complete one of four-degree programs on the regional campuses and Laura led the establishment and growth of the HDFS major. To do so, Laura worked with UConn’s Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL) to develop a unique interactive television (iTV) platform to deliver her courses across three campuses simultaneously, while creating a physical presence, rotating between campuses. During this time, she had the unique opportunity to begin partnering with UConn Waterbury’s Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI, established in 2006) conducting intergenerational research and generating new and innovative intergenerational curricula and service-learning programs. Generations United Report (2024) recently featured her intergenerational programming as an exemplary in their report of intergenerational Teaching and Learning in Higher Education.
Laura has been deeply involved throughout her career in leading gerontology educators internationally through the Academy of Gerontology in Higher Education (AGHE) and the Gerontological Society of America (GSA). She is currently the elected Chair of the AGHE member group for GSA and holds fellow status in both AGHE (2012) and GSA (2025). She started AGHE’s first Teaching Institute in 2010 and continues to organize and chair it, celebrating 15 years this November. She has chaired multiple committees and interest groups including the Intergenerational Learning Research and Community Engagement (ILRCE) and the Qualitative Research interest groups. At the departmental level, Laura helped develop the HDFS minor in gerontology.
Most recently, Laura co-led an initiative with the UConn Office of Outreach and Engagement to gain member status for UConn in the International Age-Friendly University Global Network (2025). This is an international consortium of institutions advancing policies and practices that foster healthy aging, intergenerational learning, and lifelong engagement. UConn is now among more than 120 universities globally that are reimagining higher education’s role in an aging society. UConn Joins Age-Friendly University Global Network – UConn Today.
Laura’s research interests center on education and pedagogy innovation and intergenerational programming. She is the author of numerous works, including co-authorship of the book “The Gerontology Field Placement: Internships and Practicums in Aging” (2023, Springer Publishing). She has given over 100 scholarly presentations nationally and internationally related to experiential and intergenerational learning, including a taxonomy of risk-taking relative to activities in the classroom, and innovative educational teaching platforms. As a result of appearing with her son on a reality television show called “Dragnificent!” (2020), Laura has developed a research interest on aging drag queens and how drag expression interfaces with dragism, coping, resilience, family, and generativity across the lifespan. In 2024 she was the recipient of the UConn Lavender Award in recognition of leadership for diverse communities of gender identities, gender expressions, and sexualities for her work creating and implementing UConn’s first ever pride party on the Waterbury campus, now in its fourth year involving other UConn campuses, faculty and staff, and community LGBTQ+ organizations.
Laura has been honored for her many teaching accomplishments, most notably GSA’s Clark Tibbets Award (2022) given each year to one individual internationally who has made an outstanding contribution to the advancement of gerontology/geriatrics education. At UConn, she is a CETL Teaching Fellow (2018) and an Office of Public Engagement Service-Learning Fellow (2016) and has been awarded the CLAS Excellence in Teaching Award (Behavioral & Life Sciences, 2018), the Faculty Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Award (UConn Foundation Office of Alumni Relations, 2019) and the American Association of University Professors Faculty Excellence for Teaching Career (2023).
Outside of work, Laura is a certified educator for the Archdiocese of Hartford’s Adult, Teen, and Child Lures Prevention Program, having educated over 2,200 individuals on sexual predator awareness and safety. On the homefront, Laura has 25-year-old twins and an 11-year-old bearded dragon named Tina. When time allows, Laura enjoys engaging in house projects and gardening, spending time with family and friends, and having deep conversations about the intrigues and mysteries of life.
Rebecca Puhl, Faculty Spotlight, April 2026
Dr. Rebecca Puhl is a Professor of HDFS and Deputy Director of the UConn Rudd Center for Food Policy & Health. She joined the HDFS faculty in 2015.
Rebecca was born and raised in Ontario, Canada. She completed her BAH in psychology at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, and then moved to Connecticut in 1999 to attend Yale University where she completed her MA, MS, and PhD in clinical psychology. She completed her clinical psychology internship at the VA Connecticut Healthcare System, and then returned to Yale as research faculty in the Department of Psychology and as core faculty of the Yale Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity (founded in 2005). In 2015, after 10 years at Yale, the Rudd Center joined UConn’s Institute for Collaboration on Health, Intervention, and Policy (InCHIP). UConn’s commitment to multi-disciplinary scientific collaboration and research on health and wellness provided new and ideal opportunities for the Rudd Center to further its mission and contribute to the national research reputation of the university.
Since 2001, Rebecca’s research has addressed weight-based stigma, bullying, and discrimination. Her research has examined weight-based bullying in youth, the impact of weight stigma on emotional wellbeing and physical health, weight stigma within families, health care, and the media, and policy-level strategies to reduce weight-based bullying and discrimination across multiple societal settings. To date, she has authored more than 220 peer reviewed scientific publications and 24 book chapters on these topics. Her research, supported by more than $12 million in external funding, has utilized diverse methodologies including randomized control experiments, population-based studies, survey research, and psychometric investigations. As a national research expert on weight stigma and discrimination, Rebecca has testified in state legislative hearings on weight discrimination and provides expertise on strategies to reduce weight stigma to national and international health organizations. She has also developed evidence-based trainings to reduce weight bias in health care that have been implemented in medical facilities across the U.S., and her work is regularly cited in the national media.
Rebecca has been recognized with national and international awards such as The Obesity Society’s Scientific Achievement Award for Excellence in an Established Research Career; the Excellence in Policy Research Award from the National Eating Disorders Coalition, and Obesity Canada’s Distinguished Lecturer Award. At UConn, she has been the recipient of multiple awards including UConn’s Faculty Excellence in Research Award in Public Scholarship, the AAUP Excellence in Research and Creativity Career Award, the HDFS Faculty Excellence in Mentoring Award, and the HDFS Faculty Excellence in Research Award. In 2021, Rebecca’s Scholarship placed her on the Clarivate list of the world’s most highly cited researchers.
Outside of work, Rebecca enjoys spending time with her husband Kyle and their two sons. She also loves hiking, baking, photography, reading, and creating small art pieces from sea glass she collects along the coast of Maine.
Leslie Curry, Alumni Spotlight, April 2026
Leslie is Professor Emerita of Public Health (Health Policy and Management) at the Yale School of Public Health. She also has a secondary position as Professor of Management at the Yale School of Management, a courtesy position as Professor in the Jackson School of Global Affairs, and serves as Core Faculty at the Yale Global Health Leadership Initiative and Lecturer at Yale College. She is especially interested in the scale up of innovative, evidence-based practices, programs, and policies to address health inequities and bring 30 years of expertise in implementation science and mixed methods to these questions. Together with colleagues Bradley and Krumholz, she developed a ‘positive deviance’ approach to study hospital care (which has been highly influential in academic journals) and has also applied this method in studies on medical and social care integration. She also co-led the development of a novel model of scale up of innovations commissioned by the Gates Foundation, the AIDED Model of Diffusion. Her work has been published in some of the most prestigious academic journals and featured in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, NPR and ABC News. She has been engaged in teaching and mentoring physicians at the pre-medical undergraduate, graduate, and postgraduate levels since 1993 and is passionate about supporting the next generation of scholars and teachers. She is grateful to her own mentors from UConn, Steven Wisensale and Thomas Blank.
Leslie’s current primary research portfolio includes projects addressing structural racism and drive measurable reductions in inequities in sepsis outcomes, preparing ICU leadership in Australia and New Zealand to drive transformation in clinical performance and collaborations to increase diversity in the biomedical workforce.
Leslie lives in Killingworth, CT with a menagerie of animals, courtesy of her very persuasive daughters, now 23 and 25 and living elsewhere, while she continues to muck the stalls!
Keith Bellizzi interviewed by The Independent
Keith Bellizzi was interviewed for an article in The Independent on the psychology of changing minds, “How to change your mind–and the minds of the people around you, according to experts“
Rebecca Puhl receives grant from Eli Lilly & Company
Rebecca Puhl (PI) received a grant “Equipping Pediatric Health Professionals with Tools for Change: Confronting Weight Bias and Improve Obesity Care in Pediatric Settings”. This 2-year project funded by Eli Lilly & Company is supporting the development of a comprehensive evidence-based online resource for pediatric professionals to reduce stigma and improve supportive patient care to youth with obesity.
Madeline Jones Hebert receives grant from WGSS Graduate Certificate Program
Madeline Jones Hebert received a research grant from the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Graduate Certificate program to support her work and professional development at the SRCD SOGIE Caucus Global Forum in August. Congratulations Madeline!