Recent HDFS graduate *Michael Zhu recently received the first place prize from the Elie Wiesel Foundation. Currently, he works in Washington, DC at the Duke-Margolis Center for Health Policy. Congratulations Michael!

UConn HDFS alum, Stephanie Labbe (’09), “who played women’s soccer for UConn from 2005-08, will be playing in her second Olympics as a goalkeeper for Canada, after helping that nation win a Bronze medal in the 2016 games.”

Learn more about Stephanie here: https://olympic.ca/team-canada/stephanie-labbe/. It appears she was quite the hero in the first round game: https://www.insider.com/video-canada-steph-labbe-penalty-kick-save-despite-tears-injury-2021-7

Learn more about the other 15 UConn 2021 Olympians here.

Alumna Tatiana Melendez-Rhodes (PhD ’10) received tenure and promotion to Associate Professor in the Marriage and Family Therapy Program at Central Connecticut State University (CCSU) last year. And this month, she became Marriage and Family Therapy Program Director in the Department of Counselor Education and Family Therapy at Central. Congratulations Tatiana!

Margaret Forgione, BS, Human Development and Family Relations, 1989

Margaret Forgione attended UConn in the 1980’s. While attending UCONN, she was fortunate to have many hands-on experiences that shaped her growth and interest in public service, such as an internship in Hartford at La Casa de Puerto Rico, volunteering at the Mansfield Training School, and serving as a Husky Ambassador in the Admissions office to assist UConn applicants. Margaret says that a public policy course in the Fall of her senior year changed her life by opening up the possibility of working in government and affecting change at a broader level.  As a result of this class she applied to Columbia University’s Masters of Public Administration program.  Ever since, she’s had a lifelong love of New York City and has been proud to effect change on its streets.

In the years after completing her master’s degree, Margaret held several jobs in New York, including as analyst for the Homes for the Homeless and Senior Analyst at the Office of the Mayor. In 1994, she began working at the New York City Department of Transportation, where she has worked as a special assistant to the first deputy commissioner, the director of the Adopt-a-Highway and Banner Programs, the Manhattan Borough Commissioner, and Chief Operations Officer. In 2021, Margaret was appointed as First Deputy Commissioner, where she serves as second in command and works closer with City Hall. Her work includes managing all aspects of the agency’s 5,000+ employees across all operational divisions, ranging from traffic operations and transportation planning, ferries, bridges, and roadway repair and maintenance, and emergency responses.  Some of the agency’s accomplishments in recent years that she has advanced include almost 1,400 miles of bike lanes, a bikeshare program including almost 20,000 bikes, and more recently during the COVID-19 pandemic, new programs such as Open Restaurants and Open Streets.

UConn is in a family affair for the Forgione family. In addition to Margaret, all of her siblings – Anna, Helen, and James Forgione – attended UConn. In addition, Margaret met her husband, Mark Chernauskas, at UConn. They both lived in Beard Dorm which was on South Campus at the time.  They currently live in the Bronx, and have two daughters.  Mark is retired from General Electric and keeps busy as a beekeeper and working at Captain Lawrence Brewery.

Stephen M. Gavazzi graduated in 1986 with his master’s degree in Marriage and Family Therapy prior to completing his Family Studies doctorate in 1991. Upon graduation, he accepted a position at The Ohio State University, where he has remained for the past 30 years. For many years, Steve’s scholarship remained closely connected to two of his committee members – UConn professor emeritus Steve Anderson and UConn professor emeritus Ron Sabatelli – with a strong focus on issues pertaining to families with adolescents. After publishing 50+ articles on this topic, Steve’s first book – Families with Adolescents: Bridging the Gaps Between Theory, Research, and Practice – was published by Springer Press in 2011. His service in two administrative positions – as Director of The Ohio State University’s Center for Family Research and Dean of Ohio State’s Mansfield regional campus – ignited an interest in the topic of land-grant universities, with a special emphasis on the community engagement activities that are embedded in the land-grant mission. Steve’s first book on this topic – Land-Grant Universities for the Future: Higher Education for the Public Good – was co-authored by West Virginia University president E. Gordon Gee and published by Johns Hopkins University Press in 2018. A second book on the public’s perceptions of higher education – titled What’s Public About Public Higher Ed? – written by Gavazzi and Gee will be published by Johns Hopkins University Press in early fall 2021. Most recently, Steve has focused his attention on the debt that land-grant universities across the country owe to Native American tribes. That is, the “land” in “land-grant” came from broken treaties and acts of violence perpetrated on Indigenous peoples. This “Original Sin” of the land-grant universities is the subject of several new publications that Steve has written. Currently, he is leading a research project that engages Tribal Leaders in discussions about the reparative actions that land-grant universities can take in service to healing the harm caused by these historical atrocities.

Congratulations to Dr. Nicholas Koberstein (Ph.D., 2016), who received the 2021 Award for Outstanding First-Year Student Advocate from the National resource Center (NRC) for the First-Year Experience and Students in Transition. Dr. Koberstein is the Founding Associate Professor of Child and Family Studies at Keuka College. Learn more about Dr. Koberstein and the award here: https://www.keuka.edu/blog/keuka-college-professor-receives-national-first-year-student-advocate-award

Amanda Blazka graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree with Honors in Human Development and Family Sciences and a specialization in Early Childhood Development in the Spring of 2019. Given her passion about understanding human development from multiple perspectives, she pursued her Master’s degree at Northeastern University in Criminology and Criminal Justice. At Northwestern, she combined her undergraduate background in lifespan development and family functioning with her graduate studies that had a research emphasis on evidence-based policy, education policy, and early prevention. While at Northeastern University, Amanda worked with the Center on Crime and Community Resilience as a field researcher, supporting the organization’s mission to help disadvantaged communities with impactful policy solutions through research. Most recently, Amanda has served as a College and Career Strategy Intern for the Rhode Island Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (RIDE) where she primarily supports programs stemming from the PrepareRI initiative that prepares all youth in Rhode Island with the skills they need to excel in college and/or a career upon graduation. Amanda believes that her academic pursuits have led her full circle, providing her with an understanding of the support people need to develop positively and the outcomes that could result for individuals if the system is not supportive. After graduating from Northeastern in December, 2020, Amanda was excited to continue working with RIDE as an Early Learning Education Specialist, where she supports the state of Rhode Island’s expansion of high-quality Universal Pre-K.

Mayor De Blasio appointed Margaret Forgione (’89, Stamford) as Acting Transportation Commissioner to NYC.

Two HDFS alumni, Constanza Cabello (’08) and Fahd Vahidy (’95) were panelists in #ThisIsAmerica: Exploring the History of Racism at UConn.  More information can be found here.