Suge Zhang is a first-year PhD student working with Dr. Charles Super as an advisor. Her primary interest lies in how race, ethnicity, and culture interact to affect the experiences of Asian and Asian American parents and children. In particular, she is interested in ethnic-racial socialization among Asian immigrant families from an intergenerational perspective. Another line of her research focuses on Asian American fathering and the role of employment in Asian American fathers’ involvement in parenting.

Prior to starting her doctoral study at UConn, Suge worked as a Research Associate at the Yale Child Study Center, where she supported the preliminary development and validation of a new, multidimensional measure of Chinese parents’ emotion regulation beliefs and behaviors. She graduated from New York University (NYU) with a bachelors in social work and drama in 2018 and a masters of social work in 2019. During her time at NYU, Suge accumulated a diverse range of work experiences encompassing academic research, clinical practice, and social activism concerning understudied, under-recognized needs and challenges of Asian American families in New York City.

Suge was born and raised in China and moved to the US with her parents when she was 13. She attended New Haven public schools and spent her adolescent years in the East Rock neighborhood. During her free time, Suge enjoys exploring local eateries in New Haven with her friends and family.

Graduate student Cali Salafia was awarded a Predoctoral Research Fellowship in Psycho-Oncology from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center to begin late May 2023. Congratulations Cali!

Congratulations to graduate student Lexi Tomkunas, who received funding from the Collaborative to Advance Equity Through Research on Women and Girls of Color through Africana Studies at UConn, for her project on Black girls and discipline through Florida schooling.

Graduate Student Rachael Farina was recently a co-leader in a discussion about inclusive sex and gender education for parents and caretakers at the Hartford Gay and Lesbian Health Collective.

Graduate Student Rachael Farina was featured in an article on Verywellmind.com entitled, Understanding and Managing Intrusive Thoughts In Romantic Relationships. Read the article here.

Peter McCauley joined the HDFS department in the Fall of 2022 and is working with Dr. Ryan Watson. Before coming to UConn, he attended the University of Kentucky, earning a B.A. in Psychology with minors in Spanish and Linguistics and graduated Summa Cum Laude. While at the University of Kentucky, he was a research assistant in Dr. Christia Brown’s Social Inequality in Development Lab. Under the direction of Dr. Brown, Peter worked on research examining how children develop and perceive stereotypes and how various forms of school-based discrimination affect historically marginalized youth. He also volunteered as an ESL tutor for first-generation immigrant elementary school students in local public schools.

During his final year at the University of Kentucky, Peter conducted his honors thesis examining why and when adolescents perpetrate gender-based harassment, and the contextual factors, such as sexual prejudice and gender typicality, that influence the frequency of this harassment within schools. This line of work motivated Peter to join the SHINE (Sexuality, Health, and INtersectional Experiences) lab to study queer identity development and experiences with bias-based harassment. While at UConn, Peter hopes to research how bias-based harassment, and the emotional distress as a result of experiencing this type of harassment within schools, influences queer youth’s well-being and identity development. Additionally, he hopes to use this work to leverage intervention methods that reduce the amount of harassment youth face, with the long term goal of creating healthy learning environments for all.

Peter is excited to be continuing his academic journey at UConn in a department that is highly involved with applied research surrounded by supportive faculty and colleagues. He looks forward to expanding his knowledge and working in the SHINE lab throughout his years at UConn. When not working, Peter loves to explore new vegan recipes, play his violin, and has recently tried his hand at baking (currently unsuccessfully) with his partner, Carson.

Madison Mas is a first year Ph.D. student working with Dr. Beth Russell. Originally from New Mexico, Madison moved to Tucson, Arizona to begin her undergraduate career. She graduated summa cum laude from the University of Arizona with a B.S. in Family Studies and Human Development and a B.A. in Psychology. While studying at the University of Arizona, she conducted research under the direction of Dr. Rebecca Gomez in the Tigger Child Cognition Lab studying how children acquire language and the role of sleep in language acquisition. Madison also volunteered in community outreach programs through the university’s Women in Medicine and Science club where she spent afternoons teaching science experiments to elementary school kids. Madison was also very involved with the local Active Minds chapter and gave talks about mindfulness and mental health resources for peers.

In her final year at the University of Arizona, Madison completed her honors thesis exploring the mental health challenges faced by queer individuals and, more specifically, stressors unique to bisexual women that contribute to increased mental health challenges. This area of research led her to the UConn HDFS program where she hopes to continue researching mental health in the queer community. In this new research, however, the emphasis will be on resilience, promoting emotional well-being, and employing strengths-based approaches to research.

When she’s not in school, Madison spends her time pursuing creative outlets and taking care of her two vision impaired cats (Zuko and Azula). She is a very passionate photographer and has shown her work in New York. She has spent the majority of her life dancing and would love to find new places and people to dance with.