Joshua Miller received his Ph.D. from HDFS in 1997. He had previously earned an MSW and worked as a social worker for 20 years with individuals, families, and communities in Seattle, London, Dublin, and Western Massachusetts before entering the UConn HDFS program. He was also an assistant professor at Smith College School for Social Work while studying at UConn. Josh was a full-time professor at Smith College for 30 years before retiring as a full professor in July 2022. At Smith, he taught courses in social policy, community activism, anti-racism, psychosocial responses to disasters, and positive psychology. Josh also co-facilitated an ongoing seminar for faculty to deepen their competency with issues of oppression and social identity in the classroom called “Pedagogy and Diversity.” He taught about responding to disasters at Beijing Normal University and Fudan University between 2008-2016 after responding to the Wenchuan earthquake in 2008.

Josh has published six books, including three editions of Racism in the United States: Implications for the helping professions, which he co-authored with Ann Marie Garran and Lisa Werkmeister Rozas (both professors at the UConn School of Social Work) and Hye-Kyung Kang, program director of the Seattle University School of Social Work. He published a book called Psychosocial capacity building in response to disasters and is completing a book with the working title of Psychosocial responses to sociopolitical targeting, oppression and violence: Intervention strategies for helping professionals.

In addition to his teaching and scholarship, Josh has responded to many disasters in his community, the U.S. and around the world. He is a member of a local team that offers critical incident responses to firefighters, police officers and emergency medical personnel in his community. He responded to Hurricane Katrina and 9/11 and has consulted with responders to school and community shootings. Internationally, he has worked in Sri Lanka, Haiti, China, and Canada in response to disasters and armed conflict.  He has also led a psychosocial and medical capacity building project in Northern Uganda since 2010 in response to a 20-year armed conflict.

Throughout all of his work, Josh has been concerned with confronting the affects of coloniality and white supremacy and Western cultural hegemony on the psychosocial well-being of the global majority residing in many different countries, and recovering and respecting indigenous practices. Although recently retired, he plans to continue his writing and responses to disasters and ongoing social targeting and oppression, along with spending time with his daughters and grandchildren. His experience at HDFS, particularly the knowledge, support, respect and flexibility that he encountered from his professors, provided him with a solid foundation for a very meaningful and productive academic and practice career.

Congratulations to recent PhD graduate Hilal Kuscul, who received National Family on Council Relations (NCFR) Honors Student Recognition, “awarded to students who demonstrate outstanding achievements in academics, leadership, and community service in the discipline of Family Science.”

Congratulations to recent PhD graduate Hilal Kuscul, who received National Family on Council Relations (NCFR) Honors Student Recognition, “awarded to students who demonstrate outstanding achievements in academics, leadership, and community service in the discipline of Family Science.”

Kate Dibble (PhD ’20), recent finished her postdoctoral fellowship at Johns Hopkins and started a position as a Research Fellow in Medical Breast Oncology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. She also will be working at UConn teaching HDFS 2200. Welcome Kate!

Hilal Kuscul (who successfully defended her dissertation this summer!) started her position as Visiting Assistant Professor at SUNY Oswego – you can see her in this photo of new faculty on their campus

Constanza Cabello (BA ’08) just celebrated her one year anniversary as VP of Equity Programs at State Street, a financial services provider.

Dr. Nicholas Koberstein (PhD ’16), founding associate professor of Child and Family Studies at Keuka College, was named the college’s 2022 Professor of the Year! Congratulations!

Dr. Tatiana Melendez-Rhodes came to the United States as a Fulbright Scholar to pursue a master’s degree in Marriage and Family Therapy at the University of Connecticut in 2003. She continued her doctoral studies in Marriage and Family Therapy and graduated in 2010 from UConn. During graduate school Dr. Melendez-Rhodes gained professional experience as a researcher, teaching assistant, and clinician. In 2019, she pursued advanced training and received a Program Evaluation Graduate Certificate from UConn.

Through the years, Dr. Melendez-Rhodes has maintained a professional collaboration with Dr. Ronald Rohner on different projects related to Interpersonal Acceptance-Rejection Theory (IPARTheory). She became a participating member of UConn’s Ronald and Nancy Rohner Center for the Study of Interpersonal Acceptance and Rejection.

Dr. Melendez-Rhodes had previous professional experience as a psychologist in her native country of Peru. She taught graduate courses on marriage, family therapy, and supervision in universities in the United States, and has taught undergraduate courses in psychology and family and marriage therapy at universities in Peru. Dr. Melendez-Rhodes has worked in public hospitals, inpatient psychiatric hospitals, in private practice, and in outpatient mental health organizations in Connecticut, Oregon, Washington, and Peru. She has gained extensive clinical experience as a psychologist and marriage and family therapist and applies her knowledge and experience to her teaching and research.

Currently, Dr. Melendez-Rhodes is an Associate Tenured Professor and the Program Coordinator of the Marriage and Family Therapy Master’s Program in the Department of Counselor Education at Central Connecticut State University (CCSU). She previously served as a Clinical Coordinator at CCSU. She is very passionate about teaching, mentoring, and interacting with her students. Dr. Melendez-Rhodes has organized and developed international study abroad courses in her native country, Peru, for her CCSU students. As a faculty member, one of her primary goals is to train competitive and sensitive clinicians who will serve diverse communities to the best of their capacities.

In addition, Dr. Melendez-Rhodes is a licensed marriage and family therapist in Connecticut, a Clinical Fellow of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (AAMFT), and an AAMFT Approved Supervisor. She serves on the Board of the Connecticut Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (CTAMFT). Previously, she served as the Chair of the Ethics Committee and as a Minority Fellowship Program Mentor at AAMFT. She has presented her research in national and international conferences and published scholarly work in peer-reviewed journals.

Dr. Melendez-Rhodes resides in Simsbury with her husband and her son. She enjoys traveling abroad and knowing new people and cultures.  She is very grateful for the strong education and support from her professors at UConn.

HDFS and Early Childhood alum Wheeler DeAngelis (2015), Infant/toddler mentor teacher at Boston University Children’s Center, worked with colleagues to vote to unionize the BU Children’s Center teachers. Learn more about these efforts here.

Dr. Jill Popp earned her doctorate in Human Development and Family Studies from UConn in 2010. Her research during this time focused on young children with chronic illness and their representations of family functioning. To address this topic, she interviewed parents to understand their reaction to the diagnosis and how their feelings about the illness had changed over time. This work led to new findings about how young children’s narratives mirror their parents’ reaction to diagnosis and parental coping. During her time as a student, Jill was actively involved in several research projects at Connecticut Children’s Medical Center (CCMC) that focused on family centered care for children with complex medical issues. This work led to a full-time position after graduation as a Research Scientist where she continued her doctoral research and expand her research to other illness groups.

During her five years at CCMC, Jill served on the scientific review committee to ensure quality and rigor to all human subjects research and was an active member of the hospital’s Institutional Review Board. While these activities were rewarding, it was her work on topics related to chronic illness and family functioning that she found incredibly meaningful. In particular, it was quite inspiring to hear how families were able to find hope in such challenging circumstances.

Jill’s experience from this work and her child development background proved valuable in the next chapter of her career. She applied and successfully received a position as a researcher at the LEGO Foundation in Denmark, the headquarters of the LEGO Group, in 2015.

Working at the LEGO Foundation, Jill has had the opportunity to lead several large-scale initiatives including management of internal and external stakeholders from all over the world. This work has included co-constructing rigorous proposals with partners to deepen our understanding of the science of play and children’s learning and to further realize the impact of the LEGO Foundation investments. In addition, she has designed formative evaluations that directly influenced the implementation of interventions to maximize impact for children. Jill is also a co-investigator on a cross-cultural study that uses novel methodologies to investigate children’s perceptions of play and learning. Throughout all this work, she has been involved in translating research findings in relatable ways across the organization and to broader audiences ranging from key messages for advocacy purposes to presentations at international conferences.

One significant project that Jill led at the LEGO Foundation was the development of an ambitious 10-year research agenda on playful learning and children’s development. This work involved the management of several key stakeholders, including members of the board of directors and a cross disciplinary group of researchers from all over the world. She collaborated with colleagues to build a research agenda that included not only what the Foundation would fund, but how they would support research through innovative funding mechanisms, a fellowship program, and a competitive open call process. She is currently using her knowledge from this experience to support the development of a research and learning agenda for a large NGO to amplify the work they are doing in the field of early childhood education.

Jill continues to enjoy living in Denmark and continues to travel throughout Europe while developing her LEGO brick building skills!