Anne Bladen and Marianne Legassey represented Early Childhood Specializations and Child Labs at UConn’s Fall 2024 Family Weekend. Anne and Marianne greeted students and their families attending Family Weekend events and shared information about applying for Early Childhood Specializations as well as the various ways for students to be involved at Child Labs.
John Oliver recently cited a study that Professor Marlene Schwartz co-authored on the “Last Week Tonight” segment about school lunches. Watch the video here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YypArYDcjA
Kyla is HDFS Assistant Professor in Residence and Coordinator of the Early Childhood Specialization (ECS) at UConn Stamford. Her graduate background includes both research and teaching, with a particular focus on how young children develop the crucial socioemotional skill of self-regulation and how teachers and families can promote this ability. She recently joined UConn in pursuit of a translational position where she could bridge research and practice by making evidence-based information accessible to the early childhood educators of tomorrow. In her dual role as assistant professor and program coordinator, she teaches undergraduate HDFS courses, promotes the ECS to interested students, and works closely with the Community Child Development Center (CCDC) in Westport to bring her students into high-quality preschool classrooms and guide their work.
Kyla’s journey to UConn began with her neuroscience major at UMass Amherst, where she became interested in executive function in both animals and children. After college, she obtained a full-time position as a research project manager at Michigan State University’s Early Language and Literacy Investigations Lab, which led her to sharpen her focus toward self-regulation in preschoolers. She was invited to apply to graduate school in the MSU HDFS program, where she completed her Masters and PhD degrees while serving as a research assistant across four grants, a teaching assistant, and an instructor. For the final two years of her PhD, Kyla also worked as a full-time Associate Teacher in the NAEYC-accredited MSU Child Development Lab preschools, where she used best practice approaches, developed curriculum plans, and guided undergraduate students during their practicum hours. Kyla has conducted professional development workshops for in-service and pre-service teachers and has published both research and practitioner papers on early childhood development, most notably for NAEYC’s major practitioner journal Young Children.
Alongside her faculty work, Kyla is a Certified Professional Dog Trainer and Certified Control Unleashed Instructor specializing in working with families who have recently acquired puppies. Kyla has been training dogs professionally for over 15 years and uses force-free, science-based approaches such as clicker training in private sessions and group classes, as well as raising and training dogs for service organizations like Paws with a Cause and Leader Dogs for the Blind.
When she is not teaching students or training dogs, Kyla enjoys hiking on local trails with her Golden Retriever, Jahi. She also likes psychological thrillers (books or movies), the outdoors, parenting podcasts or audiobooks, coffee/tea with friends, and spending time with her family on summer boating adventures.
Congratulations to Jolaade Kalinowski, who recently received a 5-year K01 Mentored Career Development Award from the National Institutes of Health for a project titled Proof of Concept Trial of a Mindful Walking Intervention for Black Women with Hypertension!
Kari Adamsons and Beth Russell received the 2024 Best Research Paper on Men in Families award from the National Council on Family Relations, Men in Families Focus Group, for their paper “Longitudinal transmission of risk behaviors between mothers, fathers, and adolescents,” published in March 2023, in the Journal of Family Psychology. The award will be presented at the 2024 NCFR Men in Families Focus Group meeting in Seattle in November.
Professors Ryan Watson and Lisa Eaton’s research featured in UConn Today demonstrating the importance of taking a holistic approach to HIV risk factors. Read the article here https://today.uconn.edu/2024/09/new-study-reveals-relationship-between-hiv-risk-factors-for-lgbtq-youth/
Check out the new website for the UConn Drag Queen (DQ) Research Project: https://dragqueenresearch.hdfs.uconn.edu/ led by Brian Chapman and Laura Donorfio, with collaboration from Alaina Brenick and others. The team especially wants to acknowledge the efforts of Emma Chamberlin (HDFS BS ’24), who was integral in designing the website!
Professor Marlene Schwartz co-authored a new op-ed in Health Affairs titled, “Sodium Reduction Is A Proven Strategy That Saves Lives—More Work Is Needed To Hold Industry Accountable”
Check out the recent UConn Today article on the regional campuses, which highlights the addition of the Early Childhood Specializations at UConn Waterbury! Read the article here https://today.uconn.edu/2024/08/uconns-regional-campuses-gear-up-for-exciting-new-academic-year/
Professor Rebecca Puhl’s work on reducing weight stigma was recently featured in a research brief by the Collabatory on School and Child Health. Read the article here https://csch.media.uconn.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/2206/2024/08/Rudd-CSCH-Brief-Reducing-Weight-Stigma-Families-August-2024.pdf