Jennifer Dealy (PhD ’19) was recently promoted and tenured as associate professor of Psychology at Albertus Magnus College. Congratulations Jen!

Sebastian Perumbilly (PhD ’11) was recently promoted to full professor of Marriage and Family Therapy at Southern Connecticut State University. Congratulations Seb!

Alexander Reid (PhD ’18) was recently promoted and tenured as associate professor of Child, Adolescent, and Family Studies at Cal State Bakersfield. Congratulations Alex!

HDFS Alum Ciara Collins (PhD ’23) is now a research scientist at the Institute for Policy and Governance at Virginia Tech. Congratulations Ciara!

Qianxia Jiang (PhD ’22) was recently highlighted in an article by her university, University of Central Florida, about her work on healthy lifestyles. https://www.ucf.edu/news/ucf-health-sciences-researcher-embraces-florida-as-her-living-lab/ 

Samantha 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!

After her freshman year at UConn, Christine changed her major and transferred into what was then the School of Family Studies to pursue a degree working with young children. Her concentration was Child Development and Early Childhood Education. This decision came after she took the course Programs for Young Children with Dr. Jane Goldman. Jane also became Christine’s academic advisor. Christine began a field placement at the Child Development Laboratories (CDL) in what was then the Infant/Toddler Room. She fell in love with the Program and completed student teaching experiences in both the Infant/Toddler Room and the Preschool Room.

After graduation, Christine accepted a teacher position in the Infant/Toddler Room at Packachoag Early Childhood Program in Auburn, Massachusetts. During her four years at the school, she taught children in both the Infant/Toddler and Preschool rooms. She developed and wrote the school’s first curriculum for Infants and Toddlers. Christine also wrote the Early Childhood newsletter for the school providing information about the Program and early childhood development news for families.

When Christine married her husband in 1993, she moved back to Connecticut and began teaching at the Creative Child Center at UConn Health. She was a Lead Teacher with toddlers in her 4 years there. Christine loved working in a team-teaching environment and the UConn position was her first experience preparing a program for accreditation with the National Association of Education for Young Children.

Upon returning from maternity leave after the birth of her son in 1998, Christine accepted a position as a Master Teacher here at UConn at the CDL. She has been teaching toddlers and mentoring UConn students for the past 26 years. Christine considers it a career achievement to come full circle and return to the model school that sparked her love of early childhood and supported her when most people did not recognize her as a “real” teacher. Two decades later, educators of young children are still not universally recognized or compensated for the very important work that they do. Many students and families come through the UConn Early Childhood Specializations programs each year and Christine considers it an honor and privilege to educate them about child development and the very important first three years of life for growth and learning.

Christine and her husband are proud to be UConn alumni, and both of their children are also UConn grads. They love to attend UConn sporting events and enjoy walks around the beautiful UConn campus. Christine is an avid reader and enjoys hiking with her husband and their dog Bennie.

Colleen K. Vesely, Ph.D. completed her M.A. at UConn in HDFS in 2006. She then earned a doctorate in Family Science at the University of Maryland. At UConn, Colleen worked closely with Sara Harkness and Charlie Super on the Baby Study. She gained hands-on experience conducting research with families with young children and developed a depth of knowledge regarding the role of culture in families’ experiences and children’s development. A favorite memory from her time at UConn is traveling with the entire Baby Study lab led by Drs. Harkness and Super to The Netherlands to present findings.

Colleen draws upon what she learned at UConn regarding working with families across cultures in her current work with students and families. Colleen is an Associate Professor and the Graduate Academic Program Coordinator in the Inclusive Early Childhood Education program at George Mason University. Colleen’s work is grounded in a critical, ecosystemic, antiracist perspective, focused on the intersection of two contexts, family and early childhood systems and considers how macro-level systemic and structural forces shape these contexts. She uses Community-based Participatory Action Research (CBPAR) and other emancipatory approaches to examine and center the experiences and roles of primary caretakers and teachers in young children’s lives. In addition, Colleen teaches courses on families and family partnership and qualitative methods.

Over the last 10 years, using CBPAR approaches, Colleen has worked with families and child- and family-serving institutions across northern Virginia to understand and center families who experience marginalization to co-create knowledge that informs attuned, aligned, and responsive programs, policies, and practices. Much of this work is conducted using Community Advisory Boards or Family Councils, a hallmark of CBPAR work, to shift power back to communities—especially communities where systems were not built. Most recently, Colleen and collaborators were awarded a Spencer Foundation Vision Grant focused on early childhood systems change for educational equity.

Colleen continues to remain connected to UConn HDFS . Specifically, in support of the Administration for Children and Families and the Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation Child Care and Early Education Policy and Research Consortium, Colleen is facilitating a national research collaborative focused on reimagining family partnership in early education and child care. Vanessa Esquivel, a current HDFS doctoral student is co-facilitating this collaborative, and faculty member, Kevin Ferreira van Leer is a key member of this collaborative. Colleen and Kevin also led a webinar for the National Council on Family Relations focused on immigrant families and immigration policy. Colleen would love to connect and collaborate with other UConn faculty and students whose work focuses on participatory approaches with immigrant families who have young children. She is always looking to engage and learn with other scholars, family leaders, and community leaders regarding the big visions and the nitty gritty details/logistics of reimagining family partnership vis-a-vis family-centered systems change.

Colleen has three children, ages 14, 11, and 7, who keep her very busy with their swim, marching band, art and cross-country schedules. To relax and rejuvenate her spirit, Colleen likes to spend time outside with her husband, children, and their family’s black Lab named Puma.

Tanika Eaves Simpson (PhD 2018) recently returned from a six month research visit to Australia, funded by the Fulbright Global Scholars program to study perinatal health practices of indigenous and BIPOC individuals and families. She also recently received a promotion to associate professor of Social Work at Fairfield University. Learn more here: https://www.fairfield.edu/news/archive/2023/april/two-fairfield-faculty-earn-prestigious-fulbright-awards.html