Ph.D ’13 HDFS

Dr. Kate Kellett graduated summa cum laude from Saint Joseph University with a bachelors in Psychology and received her masters in Human Development/Gerontology in 2003, also from Saint Joseph. The following year, her educational journey continued at UConn where she began doctoral studies in HDFS/Gerontology. During her doctoral studies, Dr. Kellett held numerous graduate assistantships, received a Summer Research Specialist Award, a Graduate School Summer Fellowship Award, and a Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship. She also received a Graduate Certificate in College Instruction at UConn under Dr. Keith Barker. Dr. Barker’s dedication to graduate students and to the improvement of the teaching faculty sparked Dr. Kellett’s interest in course development and classroom instruction at the college level and beyond. For several years, she taught at UConn Hartford and UConn Waterbury. Currently, she teaches Clinical Research Design and Qualitative Research Methods to Geriatric Medicine Fellows in the Academic Leadership program at the UConn School of Medicine where she helps train students for leadership careers in geriatric medicine.

In addition to teaching during her doctoral studies, Dr. Kellett worked as a Clinical Research Associate at the Braceland Center for Mental Health and Aging, Institute of Living/Hartford Hospital. While there, she collaborated with several psychiatrists, psychologists, and research scientists to conduct mental health research. One of her first study projects involved assisting the Newington, CT police department with a probe into possible explanations for numerous cases of self-immolation that had occurred within a short period. This research led to other studies involving people with mental and behavioral health disorders. Dr. Kellett has worked at UConn Health Center on Aging since 2005. She collaborates with researchers at UConn and other institutions who are dedicated to improving the health and well-being of people with disabilities, and older adults and their families. She manages various research project teams and contributes to all aspects of the research process in furthering disability and aging policy, clinical geriatric research and education projects.

During the past 18 years, Dr. Kellett has belonged to various workgroups committed to pooling the efforts of CT state agencies and non-profit partners to bring help and hope to people with significant needs. Workgroups include: The CT Workgroup on Challenging Behaviors; The CT Older Adult Behavioral Health Workgroup, and most recently the CT Housing Engagement and Support Services (CHESS) Workgroup, an effort to bring coordinated healthcare and housing services to people with mental health, substance use and other health conditions.

Over the years, Dr. Kellett has authored many legislative, public policy, and health policy reports with colleagues. Some of these include:

Connecticut’s No Wrong Door Business Case Development: Veterans Community Based Services Pilot and Program (2019-2021)
Navigating Dementia: LiveWell’s Dementia Capability Project to Build the Abilities of People Living with Dementia, their Care Partners and Communities (2019-2022)
CT State Unit on Aging: National Family Caregiver and Connecticut Statewide Respite Care Program—Assessment Report (2017)
Money Follows the Person Rebalancing Demonstration Evaluation (2013-2018)
Connecticut Bureau of Rehabilitative Services Needs Assessment (2010, 2013, 2022)
Connecticut Bureau of Rehabilitation Services and Mental Health Pilot (2011)
Medicaid Infrastructure Grant Evaluation (2006-2011)
In 2003, Dr. Kellett began serving on the Board of the South/South West Elderly Housing Corporation, in Hartford, CT and since 2007 has been President. The Board oversees a 36-unit complex that provides low-income housing to older adults and people with disabilities.

Dr. Kellett is a longtime resident of Farmington, CT where she and her husband raised three children. She continues to enjoy her family, including two grandsons, and can often be found in the garden or enjoying a walk on area trails.

BA ’15 HDFS

Elizabeth (Beth) Wilke graduated from UConn in 2015 with a bachelor’s degree in Human Development and Family Studies, concentrating in Early Childhood Development and Education. She received the State of Connecticut Office of Early Childhood’s Early Childhood Teacher Credential (ECTC) after completing Fieldwork & Supervised Teaching Practicums in UConn Child Labs’ Preschool 2 and Infant Blue Room.

Upon graduation from UConn, Beth attended Bay Path University in Massachusetts for two years and received a master’s degree in occupational therapy. She briefly strayed from her early childhood roots during her fieldwork experiences as an occupational therapy student, completing one fieldwork experience with the geriatric population and another with school-age children. Although she was not working with young children during this time, her undergraduate training as an early childhood educator was critical to her success as an occupational therapy student. During this time, she discovered that the concepts of developmentally appropriate practice and reflective practice were invaluable even outside the field of early childhood.

Beth returned to the early childhood field shortly after receiving her master’s degree; she accepted her first position as an occupational therapist at an autism-specialty program for the Connecticut Birth to Three System. Although the demands of a therapist’s first job typically elicit much anxiety, Beth found that she adjusted to the field of early intervention relatively seamlessly. She credits much of her initial success in the field to her training and experiences at the UConn Child Labs. The experience of creating developmentally appropriate curricula for children of varying ages, as well as building and maintaining rapport with children and families, created solid foundations for her future work in early intervention.

After almost two years at an autism-specialty Birth to Three program, Beth accepted a new position at a general program that serves children and families of children with a variety of needs. She frequently works with infants and toddlers who were born prematurely, are experiencing delays in their feeding and/or motor development, as well as those on the autism spectrum. Her professional interests include early signs of autism, particularly the potential association between early motor delays and later diagnoses of autism. To further her development in the early childhood/early intervention field, she is currently training to administer autism assessments such as the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS), Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS), and TELE-ASD-PEDS, a tool to support the identification of autism via remote assessment. She is also enrolled in an interdisciplinary training course for early interventionists at UConn’s Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities Education, Research and Service to enhance her skills building capacity in parents and caregivers of young children.

Beth recently purchased her own condo in Farmington, Connecticut, where she lives with her cat and dog.  Outside of work and school, she spends time with friends and family members that live locally.  Her hobbies include cycling, swimming, and yoga.  She recently started trying to grow houseplants and is a big fan of Taylor Swift!

BA ’96 Psychology, MS ’89 HDFS

Rona J. Karasik, Ph.D., FAGHE, FGSA is a Professor and Director of the Gerontology Program at St. Cloud State University. Rona, daughter of UConn alumni Gail Zieky Karasik (BS ’58 Pharmacy) and Sheldon Karasik (BS ’57 Pharmacy), graduated from UConn with a BA in Psychology (1986) and an MS in Family Studies with an emphasis in Gerontology (1989). Using the skills she learned from her Family Studies mentors (Dr. Nancy Sheehan, Dr. Tom Blank, Dr. Steve Wisensale, and Dr. Lucille Nahemow), Rona went on to earn her doctorate in Individual and Family Studies from the University of Delaware in 1993. That same year, Rona joined the faculty at St. Cloud State University in St. Cloud MN (where hockey, not basketball, reigns). She has taught Gerontology and conducted research there ever since.

Over the years, Rona’s research focus turned from family caregiving and senior housing to experiential learning and gerontological pedagogy. She is the author of numerous publications and presentations on gerontology internships, service-learning, classroom- and community-based activities, and incorporating anti-racist pedagogy into the gerontological curriculum. Teaching has become a passion for Rona – a fact that may surprise her Family Studies classmates who knew her to have a fear of public speaking.

Rona holds fellow status in both the Academy for Gerontology in Higher Education (AGHE) and the Gerontological Society of America (GSA) and is the recipient of local and national teaching awards, including AGHE’s “Distinguished Faculty” award. Currently, Rona is working with colleagues, including UConn HDFS Professor Dr. Laura Donorfio, on a textbook for gerontology interns. Most recently, Rona was appointed editor-in-chief of Gerontology & Geriatrics Education, the official journal of the Academy for Gerontology in Higher Education. 

As for her greatest accomplishments, Rona points to the two daughters she and husband, UConn alum Laurin Hafner, Ph.D., have raised. Their eldest is currently a doctoral candidate at Cornell University and their youngest will be graduating this spring as a 3^rd generation UConn Husky!

Governor Ned Lamont recently nominated Scott M. Jones (BA ’88 HDFS) as one of 22 nominations for judgeships in Connecticut. Jones currently lives in Hamden, CT, earned his Law degree from UConn, and is a public defender in New Haven. Read more about all of the nominations here.

Congratulations to Luke Russell (BA ’10 HDFS and Political Science, and our February alumni spotlight), who recently received Illinois State University’s Research Initiative Award, which recognizes new faculty members (within their first five years) who have initiated a promising research agenda early in their academic careers.

Alumni Elise (Berman) Siegel, BA ’89, was featured in UConn Today in an article about eight couples who met at UConn more than 30 years ago, and are still married. You can learn more about Elise and the other couples, here: Read the article here.   Also note that Elise is Eva Lefkowitz’s cousin, and when Eva first told her about becoming the HDFS department head at UConn, Elise mentioned that she remembered taking HDFS 1070 in the 1980’s from a young new professor, Ron Sabatelli.

Alumni Emily Simpson, PhD 19, recently started a position as an assistant professor of Psychology at East Central University in Oklahoma.

Alumni Ellen Pudney (PhD 2021), who recently accepted a position as assistant professor at Eastern Virginia Medical School in the Division of Pediatric Community Health and Research! Congratulations!

BA ’10 HDFS and Political Science

Luke T. Russell attended UConn from 2006-2010. He entered the University initially as a political science major, with an interest in international relationships and the process of brokering peace between nations. On the advice of a friend, he took a course during his sophomore year on family dynamics taught by then department head Dr. Ron Sabatelli. Fascinated by the theoretical insights of family systems theory and the practical bend of Human Development and Family Studies, Luke added HDFS as a second major, and subsequently completed an honors thesis in HDFS. As an honors student, Luke took a graduate seminar on Divorce, Remarriage, and Stepfamilies taught by Dr. Shannon Weaver, which drew him into the study of brokering peace within divorced and separated households. Under the mentorship of Dr. Weaver, he received research support from the Summer Undergraduate Research Fund Gary Karp Award to complete a grounded theory study with emerging adult stepchildren about how they built, formed, and experienced meaningful relationships with their stepparents. Largely because of this experience, he went on to complete both an MS and PhD in Human Development and Family Science at the University of Missouri.

Since 2018, Luke has been an assistant professor of Human Development and Family Science at Illinois State University, where he has received both a University Teaching Initiative Award and University Research Initiative Award for his accomplishments in the classroom and broader publication record as a pre-tenure faculty member. In his research he continues to investigate how individuals living in diverse family structures (e.g., post-divorce families, remarried/stepfamilies, cohabiting families, single-parent families, etc.) organize their relationships, engage in strategies that promote resilience, and maintain family-members’ health and well-being. He also studies how broader social institutions (e.g., health care systems, schools, and government agencies) can function as supportive resources for individuals living in structurally diverse families. He currently serves on five editorial boards: Journal of Family Theory & Review, Journal of Family Nursing, Family Relations: Interdisciplinary Journal of Applied Family Science, Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, and Personal Relationships; is a founding member of the Divorce Education Assessment Collaborative based out of Kansas State University, and in 2021 gained full certification as a Certified Family Life Educator. At Illinois State University he teaches courses in communication and helping skills, family policy, families in later life, and enduring issues for couples and families. His work both in the classroom and outside of it has been (and continues to be) greatly shaped by his experiences as an undergraduate at the University of Connecticut.

Kristina Sluzewski-Soderholm graduated from UConn in 2013 with a double major in Human Development and Family Studies (HDFS) and Psychology. After graduation, Kristina completed her M.Ed in Family and Consumer Sciences Education at North Dakota State University and soon after began her professional career as a high school teacher and preschool program director. In 2015, Kristina began a position at Wilton High School to run their Child and Lifespan Development program, where she oversees their collaborative high school-preschool program.

Over the past seven years, Kristina has taken her passions for early childhood development and secondary education to create an environment for her high school students where they can build connections and gain hands-on experience working with preschool aged children. Her preschool program, Helping Hands Preschool, is located inside the high school building and allows her students to work daily with the preschool class. Her main goal as an educator is to inspire her students and create a safe space for them to explore, learn, and grow without judgement.

Kristina’s passion for child development has led her to run several groups at her school, aiming to show her students the importance of volunteer work and giving back to the community. Some of the groups’ accomplishments include running a supply drive for requested items in the foster care system, raising awareness within the community of childhood cancers, and collecting funds to send children with serious illnesses to summer camp free of charge. Within the past seven years, she and her Wilton students have raised thousands of dollars to donate to childhood causes in their community.

Kristina has remained closely connected to UConn since graduating. In 2019, she was recognized at the 2018-2019 UConn ECE Professional Development Awards as the Rookie of the Year for Excellence in First-Year Course Instruction for successfully introducing the UConn Individual and Family Development course into the Wilton High School curriculum. To continue to connect her high school students to the university, Kristina often takes her high school students on field trips to the Storrs campus to show them all the opportunities that the HDFS department has to offer for students interested in the field. Kristina credits the UConn HDFS department for opening her eyes up to a career path that makes her excited to come to work every day.