Faculty

Kevin Ferreira van Leer, HDFS Faculty Spotlight, March 2024

Kevin Ferriera Van LeerKevin Ferreira van Leer is a community and developmental psychologist who joined the HDFS faculty as an assistant professor in August 2023. His research examines the social and cultural contexts that promote positive development and liberation for Latine immigrants and their families, with an emphasis on educational contexts. He largely utilizes community-engaged research, collaborating directly with immigrant communities to develop research projects around their concerns and build their capacity to conduct research themselves. This work is shared with scholarly communities in academic journals and conferences, with immigrant communities themselves through photos, infographics and popular education materials, and with policy makers through briefs.

Kevin grew up in New Jersey in Portuguese and Colombian families. He attended United World College Costa Rica, a two-year residential international high school program that aims to make education a force to unite people, nations, and cultures for peace and a sustainable future. He then received his undergraduate degree in Interdisciplinary Studies at Wagner College, where he first became interested in the role that universities can play in their local communities as anchor institutions. He worked in community-based organizations addressing issues of educational access for and alongside immigrant communities in New York. These experiences illustrated the roles that institutions of higher education and research can play in advancing community wellbeing, which pushed him to apply to graduate school. He completed his Ph.D. in Applied Developmental and Educational Psychology with a certificate in Human Rights and International Justice at Boston College. He then joined the Child and Adolescent Development faculty at California State University, Sacramento where he was for five years before joining UConn HDFS.  Kevin was a National Research Center for Hispanic Children and Families’ Research Scholar and is a contributor to several Hispanic Center projects.

Kevin’s current research includes examining how Latine undergraduates understand student success and perceive “servingness” at a Hispanic Serving Institution (see the Using Our Voices HSI project), as well as investigating how structural factors – such as variation in social policy exclusions for immigrants and the assets of immigrant communities – are associated with the wellbeing of immigrant families in the U.S (see the Elevating Equity project). These community-engaged research projects blend qualitative and quantitative methods in order to center the experiences of communities at the forefront of research. As he settles into Connecticut, he is exploring potential collaborations with local Latine immigrant communities to co-investigate how their interactions with social policies and/or educational institutions facilitate wellbeing and liberation. He currently teaches courses on diverse families and issues of diversity at the undergraduate and graduate level. Within the classroom, Kevin aims to co-construct knowledge and co-examine assumptions in the field while preparing students to critically examine their contexts in hopes of positively transforming them. A scholar-activist, Kevin has been sought out for supporting educational institutions in addressing the ways that policy and practice create, and perpetuate, inequity for people of color through extra- and inter- institutional efforts. For instance, he recently served as a member of the United World College Anti-Racism, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Steering Group, a committee of the UWC International Board, the governing body of the 18 schools on four continents with over 60,000 alumni from over 150 countries, as well as the Supporting Equitable Educator Development Advisory Committee for EDUCARE. Alongside his role as a faculty member at UConn, he is an Executive Board member of United World College Costa Rica.

Outside of work, Kevin enjoys traveling, reading, cycling and coffee. Kevin just celebrated his son’s first birthday. Alongside his husband, he enjoys seeing the world through a toddler’s eyes.

Rebecca Puhl featured in articles about Obesity and Weight Bias

Rebecca PuhlProefessor Rebecca Puhl was featured in Psychology Today in an article, Bullying Within the Home Hurts Children With Obesity, https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/children-at-the-table/202401/bullying-within-the-home-hurts-children-with-obesity. She was also featured in a Society for Human Resources Management article on Confronting Weight Bias: https://www.shrm.org/topics-tools/news/all-things-work/confronting-weight-bias,  and in Medscape for an article on Confronting Weight Bias in the Clinic: https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/998416.

Rebecca Puhl featured in UConn Today, and Nutrition Insight

Rebecca PuhlProfessor Rebecca Puhl was featured in UConn Today describing a new educational website she developed to educate healthcare professionals about weight stigma and strategies to improve supportive patient care. https://today.uconn.edu/2024/02/rudd-center-launches-supportive-obesity-care-website/

Rebecca was also featured in Nutrition Insight in an article, WeightWatchers flags “food noise” as roadblock to healthy weight: https://www.nutritioninsight.com/news/weightwatchers-flags-food-noise-as-roadblock-to-healthy-weight.html

Hilal Kuscul, HDFS Faculty Spotlight, February 2024

Hilal KusculDr. Hilal Kuscul is a scholar in the field of Human Development and Family Sciences, bringing over 20 years of experience in the nonprofit sector to her work. She has been deeply involved in the development, implementation, and evaluation of parenting, literacy, and women empowerment programs within the nonprofit sector. This extensive experience served as a catalyst for her pursuit of a doctoral degree in Human Development and Family Sciences.

Hilal earned her Ph.D. in 2022 from the UConn HDFS Department. During the 2022-2023 academic year, she served as a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Human Development Department at SUNY Oswego. Since the Fall of 2023, Hilal has served as a Visiting Assistant Professor of HDFS at UConn Waterbury. In this position, she passionately integrates her practical knowledge and academic expertise into courses covering a broad spectrum, including Adolescent Development, Parenting and Parenthood, Close Relationships, Men and Masculinities, Family Policies, and Family Interaction Processes.

Rooted in her past work with under-resourced families, Hilal’s research delves into the dynamics of low-income family environments, examining their profound impact on both children and parents, with a specific emphasis on fathers. Her theoretical framework is grounded in bioecological and identity theories, contextualized by considerations of gender roles and cross-cultural perspectives. Throughout her doctoral studies at UConn, she collaborated with Dr. Kari Adamsons, acquiring expertise in analyzing secondary data from sources such as the Future of (Fragile) Families and Child Well-Being Study, along with data related to Turkish Fathers.

As a developer of several education-based interventions, Hilal is an advocate for evidence-based educational interventions. She is deeply committed to informing family-based prevention and intervention programs, aiming to promote resilience and mental well-being in both parents and children. Hilal’s work also aims to bridge the gap between scientific knowledge and public understanding. She aims to translate academic insights into accessible language, ensuring that complex concepts become relatable to students and diverse learners across a range of programs.

Hilal has two sons, currently in the phase of ’emerging adulthood’ and enjoys spending time with them and her husband. She has a passion for watching true crime series and reading books on history and mythology. Whenever the opportunity arises, she also likes to visit museums and libraries.

Candi Nwakasi, HDFS Faculty Spotlight, January 2024

Candi NwakasiDr. Candi Nwakasi is gerontologist who joined UConn HDFS as an assistant professor in August 2023. He is also an affiliate faculty of the Africana Studies Institute and a member of the UConn Cancer Survivorship Research Program. Candi’s work is based on using research, practice, and teaching to inform efforts geared towards addressing inequities in the aging and health experiences of minoritized people within and outside the US. His research program includes cancer survivorship and support access, cognitive health/decline and caregiving, and health care access in disadvantaged populations. He is also the co-founder of Black in Gerontology and Geriatrics (BIGG), a non-profit that is making efforts to amplify Black voices and elevate Black scholars and practitioners in the field of Aging. They recently received a 5-year NIA award to expand their work in the United States.

Across his career, Candi has combined work experience in public health care delivery, pharmaceutical, non-profit, and academia. He was initially trained as a Biochemist, before earning his Public Health master’s degree in the United Kingdom, and a Ph.D. in Social Gerontology from Miami University of Ohio. He was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Southern Indiana, working on a dementia workforce improvement program targeting rural Indiana, before joining Providence College as a tenure-track Health Sciences Assistant Professor in 2020 (during the pandemic).

Currently, Candi is investigating sociocultural factors influencing cancer survivorship experience in Black and Latinx populations. He is also collaborating on projects to identify psychosocial and environmental determinants of cognitive decline in older Black adults, psychosocial support access in aging/older Black cancer survivors, mental health seeking in Black cancer survivors, and understanding motivations for caregiving. Candi is a strong believer in mentorship and appreciates the power of mentorship in minoritized student and scholars in academia.

Beyond work, Candi enjoys watching soccer, playing soccer, playing video games (especially soccer), and discussing soccer. He is a second-generation Arsenal FC of England fan. He also loves to hang out with friends and family.

Waterbury HDFS students organize community outreach project

Laura Donorfio
Donorfio

Students in Laura Donorfio’s HDFS 4007W organized UConn Waterbury’s first “Career Closet” event on November 14th. Over 100 students attended the free event to pick out several articles of professional clothing for future interviews/careers. All clothing was donated by community partners.

Two HDFS alumni were involved and worked closely with the class: Heather Price (2016 graduate), Assistant Director of Academic Affairs at UConn Waterbury and Ali DeGirolamo (2020 graduate), Mayoral Aide for the city of Waterbury.

Rachel Tambling, HDFS Faculty Spotlight, December 2023

Rachel TamblingDr. Rachel Tambling is a Professor in the Department of Human Development and Family Sciences at the University of Connecticut, a licensed marital and family therapist, a Clinical Fellow of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy, and an AAMFT Approved Supervisor of clinical behavioral health services. She received her MA in Marriage and Family Therapy from Western Michigan University and PhD in Child and Family Development with a concentration in Marriage and Family Therapy from University of Georgia.

Dr. Tambling’s research is focused on modifiable factors related to behavioral health service engagement. She is interested in research that explores ways to address barriers to behavioral health equity, including expanding the availability of couple and family therapy, and understanding the complex components of effective engagement and change during therapy. Dr. Tambling is also interested in the measurement of psychotherapeutic constructs and the ways in which measurement impacts outcomes of behavioral health services.

More broadly, her work is based on a Systems Theory approach, which highlights the complex and interacting effects (e.g., individual, familial, social structural, policy, societal) that influence well-being and behavioral health outcomes. Her research includes an examination of the ways in which societal factors, including stigma, social determinants of health, and access to services impact mental health and substance use treatment services. Dr. Tambling is committed to research that explores the complex components of effective engagement and clinical change using ecologically valid and rigorously collected data that are analyzed using advanced and appropriate statistical techniques. Her work has been cited over 2,000 times; she co-authored a top cited paper in the Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, the flagship journal of the marriage and family therapy profession, and has seen her work published in the preeminent journals of systemic scholarship (e.g. Contemporary Family Therapy; Family Process; Family Relations) and international journals of behavioral health and substance use (e.g. Alcoholism Treatment Quarterly; Couple and Family Psychology; Family and Community Health; Health Education and Behavior; International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction; Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, Policy).

Dr. Tambling is the Editor-in-Chief of Contemporary Family Therapy, a premiere journal in the field of marriage and family therapy, and an author of the textbook Helping Skills: Basic Techniques for the Active and Engaged Helper (Cognella, 2023).

At UConn, Dr. Tambling serves as the Chair of the Institutional Review Board at the University of Connecticut and is an Affiliate of the Institute for Collaboration on Health, Intervention, and Policy, a Research Affiliate of the Center for Applied Research in Human Development, and an Affiliate of the Sustainable Global Cities Initiative.

Dr. Tambling has been recently honored with several awards. She is a 2022 recipient of the Western Michigan University Outstanding Alumnae Award for contributions to the fields of counseling, psychotherapy, and marriage and family therapy. She is also the NCFR Family Therapy Section’s 2023 Kathleen Briggs Outstanding Mentor Awardee, an award in recognition of her work in mentoring and supporting the next generation of scholars.

In her life outside of work, Dr. Tambling is an avid runner and enjoys travel, marathons, and travel to marathons.