Congratulations to the 2024 Stamford HDFS Faculty Award Recipients, honored for their strong academic achievement, leadership, commitment to educational/intellectual growth, and participation in class: Alicja B. Kurpinowicz, Labonno Ranga, and Wendy Lopez.

Emily Fritzson is an HDFS Ph.D. candidate who will defend her dissertation and graduate in Spring 2024. She earned her bachelor’s degree in psychology from Skidmore College in 2017 and worked for two years as a research lab manager at the University of Delaware before entering the HDFS program in 2019.

Her research interests broadly encompass the health and well-being of individuals living with chronic illness, particularly cancer. Since the start of graduate school, Emily has worked on an NIH-funded, longitudinal study of resilience trajectories among over 550 newly diagnosed cancer survivors. Under the mentorship of the project lead and her academic advisor, Dr. Keith Bellizzi, she was fortunate to participate in almost every component of this project from participant recruitment to publication. At UConn, Emily has also worked with Dr. Bellizzi, Dr. Na Zhang, and Dr. Crystal Park on other projects related to the adaptation and well-being of individuals facing health-related adversity. In addition to research, Emily gained valuable teaching experience as a teaching assistant for Close Relationships Across the Lifespan and Infancy Through Adolescence and the instructor-of-record for Adulthood and Aging.

For her dissertation, Emily analyzed data from the 2021 Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS)—Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Program (SEER) project, referred to as HINTS-SEER. Utilizing sophisticated data analytical methods to account for the survey design of HINTS-SEER, she examined the associations between health care providers’ patient-centered communication and health outcomes (e.g., psychological distress, physical function limitations, and general health) among adults with a history of cancer. She also explored the potentially mediating role of worry about cancer recurrence and moderating roles of pessimism and social isolation among these associations. The results of the study underscore the critical role of addressing cancer-related concerns through patient-centered communication in healthcare delivery, as these efforts can enhance psychosocial well-being and overall health outcomes among survivors of cancer.

Emily recently joined NORC at the University of Chicago as a Research Director II in their Health Sciences Research Department. She is excited to continue conducting high-quality research with a talented team of researchers and sharing findings in digestible and compelling ways at NORC.

In her free time, Emily enjoys visiting coffee shops, long walks with a friend, and working on her latest paint-by-numbers project. In the summer, she especially loves returning to her home state of Maine to spend time by the ocean and lakes with her family.

Congratulations to graduate student Caroline Salafia, who received a Conference Student Travel Award to the Society of Behavioral Medicine from the Cancer Special Interest Group!

Congratulations to Veronica Hanna-Walker, Graduate Student Recipient from CLAS for the Outstanding Senior Women Academic Achievement Award!

Congratulations to Ruth Salazar, Undergraduate Student Recipient from CLAS for the Outstanding Senior Women Academic Achievement Award!

Paige Bueckers, current HDFS major, was named the 2023-2024 BIG EAST Women’s Basketball Scholar-Athlete of the Year. She is the first Husky to do so since 2011. She also was named BIG EAST Most Outstanding Player of the Tournament for the second time. Congratulations Paige! https://uconnhuskies.com/news/2024/3/6/womens-basketball-bueckers-named-big-east-scholar-athlete-of-the-year

Sihui is a first-year PhD student working with Dr. Beth Russell. Originally from China, Sihui obtained her master’s degree in clinical psychology at the Jinan University in Guangzhou, China.  After graduation, she worked as a research assistant at the Department of Psychiatry at First Affiliated Hospital of Jinan University. During this period, she explored the association between emotion, cognitive function, and neurobiology in adolescents with depression, as well as a digital intervention based on brain plasticity in patients with mood and/or cognitive symptoms. Through research and work with clinical populations, she gained experience in structured diagnostic interviews, psychological and cognitive assessments, individual and group cognitive behavior therapy, and non-pharmaceutical intervention. Driven by her concern with the increasing number of adolescents with mood disorders at outpatient clinics, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic, she began to focus on adolescent developmental psychopathology. She is quite interested in research on the mental health and well-being of children and their families.

Currently, Sihui is continuing to pursue research in adolescent development, mental health, prevention and early intervention. She hopes that in the future, her research and findings will be applied to benefit individuals, families, communities, and public health practices, thereby helping more people. Personally, mastering work-life balance is also one of her important goals!

Coming to UConn to study was Sihui’s first experience traveling abroad. It was also a brave decision she made to pursue her academic dreams and love. Sihui is very grateful for how fortunate she has been to meet supportive and warm professors and friends here! Out of work, Sihui enjoys watching comedy shows, doing yoga, and chatting with friends and family.

Amanda is currently a first-year PhD student working with Dr. Kari Adamsons. She is originally from Seattle but moved to Phoenix to attend Arizona State University (ASU) for her undergraduate degree. In May 2023 she earned a B.S. in Political Science and Psychology from ASU. During her undergraduate studies, she worked in several child development labs where she became interested in child and adolescent development. In addition, she worked in a lab examining family relationships, leading her to become fascinated by parent-child relationships and their contribution to children’s and adolescents’ developmental outcomes. For her honors thesis, she studied parent-child emotional synchrony and its association with early adolescents’ internalizing and externalizing psychopathology. Through her research labs and her honors thesis, she gained experience and knowledge about research examining parent-child relationships.

At UConn, Amanda has continued to further her understanding of parent-child relationships and child development. Specifically, she wants to conduct research examining the role of parent-child relationships in children’s and adolescents’ mental health and risk taking, with particular interest in substance use and abuse, delinquent behaviors, anxiety, and depression. In addition, she is interested in how parents’ behaviors contribute to these adolescent outcomes. In the future, she plans to continue studying predictors of adolescent substance use and other mental health outcomes. Ultimately, she aims to conduct research that can have real-world implications for families and adolescents.

Outside of school work, Amanda typically spends her time watching sports. She is a huge Seattle sports fan, so she will often spend her free time watching games on TV. In addition, she loves to read books for fun and spend time outdoors.