This past Spring, long-time HDFS professor Steve Wisensale retired after 35 years of teaching at UConn. During his time in HDFS, Wisensale held many important roles, including Acting Dean of the School of Family Studies. During his tenure he received three Fulbright Fellowships, allowing him to teach and study family policy and aging in Germany, the Czech Republic, and Japan. He also received several university-wide teaching awards, including the 1992 Faculty Excellence in Teaching Award and the 2008 Honors Faculty Member of the Year Award. In recent years, Wisensale was perhaps best known to his students for his popular class, Baseball and Society: Politics, Economics, Race, and Gender, that he designed and introduced. This non-traditional course made deep connections between baseball and the broader historical changes that have happened in society. Wisensale’s passion for baseball and teaching was undeniable, leading hundreds of students to apply for a spot in his class each time it was taught. Wisensale left a lasting impression on the HDFS department and UConn as a whole, and his regular presence will be deeply missed.

Assistant Professor Caitlin Lombardi’s article was selected for the 2017 Editor’s Choice Award for the Journal of Cognition and Development. The award was announced at the October 2019 Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Development Society. Article: Casey, B. M., Lombardi, C. M., Pollock, A., Fineman, B., & Pezaris, E. (2017). Girls’ spatial skills and arithmetic strategies in first grade as predictors of fifth grade analytical math reasoning. Journal of Cognition and Development, 5, 530-555.

Professor and Department Head Eva Lefkowitz’s research with former student Rose Wesche on the influence of friends and romantic partners on alcohol use, was featured in the NY Times.

Laura Mauldin’s book entitled, Made to Hear: Cochlear Implants and Raising Deaf Children, was recently featured with a 12 min ASL synopsis at acadeafic.org

Associate Professor Beth Russell’s research with colleagues in Social Work and Psychology, targeting substance abuse through Emotion Regulation interventions, was featured in UConn Today

Assistant Professor Maria LaRusso presented to Connecticut State legislators on Adolescent Mental Health and the Impact of School Start Times in a legislative session hosted by state representative Jillian Gilchrest and broadcast on CT-N on October 1st.

Professor Rebecca Puhl was quoted in an article in US News and World Report. Read the article here.

Professor Rebecca Puhl discusses how to reduce fat shaming in the Metro Daily News.

Professor and Department Head Eva Lefkowitz and former students will be honored in Toronto this week for their article, which was selected by the Sexuality Topic Network of the Society for the Study of Emerging Adulthood as the winner of the 2018 Best Research Article award for research advancing scholarship on sex and sexuality among emerging adults.  Read the article here https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jora.12422