Alumni

Lisa (Villamana) Kilcourse, HDFS Alumni Spotlight, March 2025

Lisa (Villamana) Kilcourse earned her Bachelor of Science in Human Development and Family Studies and minored in Psychology at the University of Connecticut, Storrs campus. Shortly after she graduated in 2005, she earned her Master of Science in Counselor Education: School Counseling at Western Connecticut State University as well as her certification as a Connecticut School Counselor (2009).

After working for several years in Weston Public Schools as a Paraprofessional, Intern, Permanent Building Substitute, and School Counselor, as well as a Bethel Public Schools Summer’s Best Program Teacher, Lisa Kilcourse is currently an elementary school counselor at Head O’Meadow Elementary School in Newtown Connecticut and has been there since December 2015. She has earned accolades such as 2021 CT School Counselor of the Year Runner Up and 2018-2019 Newtown Board of Education Profiles in Professionalism Award. Lisa was an American School Counselor Association (ASCA) Elementary School Counselor Affinity Group Leader (2021-2023) and has written several publications for the association, most recently, From the Chair: Making Magic at School (ASCA). She is also the current Chairman of the Connecticut School Counselor Association and has remained connected to school counselors across the state by serving in several roles such as VP Fairfield County, Director, Conference Planning Committee, and National School Counseling Week Workgroups in this association, beginning in 2018 and has been an active member of the association since graduate school. In August 2024, Lisa also became a Certified Yoga Teacher which has provided her with the opportunity to utilize yoga and mindfulness with students in a variety of ways.

Lisa enjoys giving back to the profession. She has been supervising school counselor practicum students and school counselor interns in her school building. In 2025, Lisa will begin teaching as an Adjunct Professor at Western Connecticut State University. Lisa is grateful for the connections and support from the many different avenues of her work in CT education and looks forward to continuing her work in helping others grow in their journey as lifelong learners.

Lisa enjoys finding balance by staying active, whether it be on a recumbent bike or through her own yoga practice. She also enjoys attending performances in Hartford, New Haven, and NYC and trying new restaurants in the area. She has been married since July 2010 to her UConn college sweetheart and Human Development and Family Studies Alum, Gregory Kilcourse (2004). They currently reside in Connecticut and enjoy cheering on the Huskies each year!

David Schless, HDFS Alumni Spotlight, March 2025

Headshot, David SchlessAfter scrambling to find three credits to fill his first semester schedule, David Schless convinced a professor to allow him to enroll in an upper-level sociology of aging class and was ultimately introduced to an undergraduate program he would have never otherwise contemplated. At a certain point, he was introduced to Dr. Nancy Sheehan, who agreed to become his undergraduate advisor and ultimately played a significant role helping him create a unique, robust undergraduate program that was heavy on gerontology and policy with exposure to many of the outstanding HDFR faculty at UConn in the mid-1980s. It was in a policy-oriented class with Dr. Steven Wisensale his junior year that he met Susan Martino, who he subsequently dated (post-UConn) and married in 1991. With much encouragement from Dr. Sheehan and adjunct professor Dr. Rikke Wassenberg, David become the first HDFR student to go through the relatively new UConn Honors program.  

 After graduating from UConn, David attended the University of North Texas, which at the time had the nation’s premier graduate program for professionals working in long-term care. The program, created by the Administration on Aging in 1968, had a significant business focus (accounting, finance, management) and both a thesis and an extensive internship requirement for graduation. With his older brother working in the Pentagon for the Department of Defense, David accepted a research-oriented internship in nearby Annapolis, MD with the National Association for Senior Living Industries (NASLI), a 501c3 trade association comprised of executives from a wide variety of businesses serving older adults. After receiving his MS from North Texas in 1989, David accepted a research position with NASLI, where he met several professionals involved in the fledgling seniors housing business. 

 In 1991, when David was 25, the Washington, DC-based National Multifamily Housing Council (NMHC) offered him an opportunity to launch a Seniors Housing Committee, which in 1995 became the American Seniors Housing Association (ASHA). ASHA was a 501c6 which lobbied on Capitol Hill on behalf of owners and operators of seniors housing (including both for-profit and not-for-profit entities involved in independent living, assisted living, memory care, and life plan/continuing care retirement communities). The Association also began conducting a variety of research studies to better understand the needs and desires of older adults and their families, and to better understand the underlying business and investment case for senior living. In 2001, ASHA spun-off from NMHC and has continued to represent owners and operators, conduct and/or sponsor a multitude of research projects, and help older adults and their families navigate the complexities of senior living on the Association’s www.WhereYouLiveMatters.org website. David has served as the American Seniors Housing Association’s president & CEO since its inception 33 years ago. 

 David and Susan have lived in Rockville, MD since the early 1990s where they raised two grown children and numerous cats. David has been actively involved with the Alzheimer’s Association for much of his professional career and has helped raise more than $60 million to fund research for a cure. He has also served on the Advisory Board of the Cornell Institute for Healthy Futures and the Granger Cobb Institute for Senior Living at Washington State University. 

Lauren Lafferty, HDFS Alumni Spotlight, February 2025

Lauren Lafferty graduated with a BS in HDFS in 2005. During her time at UConn she led the HDFS student government, was named a New England Scholar, presented a thesis as an undergraduate and was later awarded an outstanding women’s award from the UConn Alumni Foundation. Lauren credits her HDFS degree as the bedrock for a nearly 20-year career focused on keeping families and children at the center of her equity focused work.

 

After graduating from UConn, Lauren worked for the Village for Families and Children in Hartford in out-of-school-time programming. Her work at the Village, combined with her HDFS background, fueled a desire to pursue her master’s degree. She moved to Boston and completed a master’s in education with a concentration in Risk and Prevention at Harvard University’s School of Education in 2008. At Harvard, Lauren was energized by her work as a Prevention Intern at the Gardner Pilot Academy (GPA), a community school in Boston. At this school she developed an ambition for high quality urban public education, led by a principal who excelled in this incredible work, allowing her to see the best practices in the field come to life.

 

In 2008 Lauren began her 16-year tenure at GPA. During this time, she designed, led and fundraised successfully for interventions, programs and partnerships that met the highest quality standards and supported families to thrive. She was tasked with funding the gap to ensure access to opportunity and quality learning for students beyond the public-school budget allocation. As a result of this work, Lauren raised and managed an average of $700,000 per year through grant writing and fundraising initiatives. Her work also required partnering with over 15 funders and 30 partners annually. Due to these efforts, GPA’s chronic absenteeism rate was lower than both the state and district averages, the family teacher conference rate of 100% was met annually and over 300 students and family members received basic needs in the form of clothing and food annually. As Senior Director of Extended Services, Lauren consulted, mentored and presented to many individuals from the field of community schools, early education, and prevention, all built off the foundation of HDFS.

 

Lauren is currently the Chief Program Officer at YWCA New Britain. In this role, she uses her collective experiences working in diverse urban communities for the past 20 years to support innovative programs and partnerships at the YWCA. She continues to work with an empowerment-focused and anti-racist lens, central to the YWCA mission, closing opportunity gaps through financial development.

 

Lauren currently resides in West Hartford, CT with her husband Gary and is the proud mom to Julia (4th grade) and Ava (1st grade). As someone raised in a large, loud and loving extended family, Lauren enjoys spending time with her many family members, friends and neighbors.

Samantha Collins, HDFS Alumni Spotlight, January 2025

Headshot, Samantha CollinsSamantha Collins earned her Bachelor of Arts in HDFS with a minor in Spanish in 2012. She has built a career in public education after receiving her Master of Arts in Educational Psychology with a concentration in School Counseling at UConn. She also received a certificate in College Counseling from UCLA Extension in 2019.

After obtaining her master’s degree, Samantha worked as a traditional high school counselor in Litchfield County before becoming the college & career counselor at Trumbull High School in 2016. Samantha has just begun her ninth year in this position at Trumbull High School. She is looking forward to taking students to both the UConn Stamford and Storrs campuses this fall! Samantha has also been an active member of the Connecticut School Counselor Association for over a decade engaging in various leadership roles such as public relations chair and director.

In 2022, Samantha and her husband welcomed twin boys to their family. Samantha is grateful for her time working in the infant room at the UConn Child Development Laboratories as an undergraduate and graduate student. She sings songs and uses Sign Language that she learned as a Child Care Trainee which has assisted in her boys’ development and communication skills. She is looking forward to taking them to UConn basketball games in the future. Luckily they have already seen two national championships in their nearly two years of life. Go Huskies!