Tianmei is a first-year PhD student working with Dr. Kari Adamsons. Originally from China, she first became a student in the US as a double major in Economics and Psychology at Smith College. At Smith, she worked with Dr. Marsha Kline Pruett and Dr. Patricia DiBartolo and dived into two research areas: coparenting and perfectionism of women of color in academia. These seemingly distant research areas both spoke to her identity and interests, which proved academic pursuits could be a thrilling rollercoaster. Before entering the world of HDFS field or even deciding to pursue a PhD, Tianmei completed several internships to try to escape from academia by meandering through various industries, from big PR firms to financial security companies, wire and phone corporations, and children’s clinics. Eventually, she gave up and admitted family is a constant theme that intrigues her. Encouraged by her undergrad mentor, she took a leap of faith into this amazing field, and she hasn’t looked back since.

Tianmei’s current research is driven by two core passions. In one role, she is now working on parenthood-related research with Dr. Adamsons and hoping to discover more about how parents perceive, negotiate, and practice their coparenting strategies. In the other role, she is working with Dr. Charles Super on the cross-cultural comparison of parental ethnotheories. She loves both topics and enjoys pushing herself to move forward like a determined snail. The small team and big lab settings bring her equally fantastic research experiences.

When she’s not buried in her class or research work, she likes hanging out with friends, playing video games, and trying out all kinds of recipes with all kinds of music played by her lovely Bose bar. Her favorite games are Zelda BOTW and Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney. She has both a PS5 and a Nintendo Switch stationed at home, most of the time serving as a final save point of her everyday life.

Audrey Boucher is a UConn junior majoring in HDFS. She is from Newton, Massachusetts and is very passionate about the UConn HDFS program. Audrey is very driven and motivated about working with others.

Audrey currently serves as the treasurer of the Family Sciences Undergraduate Council and is excited to be a part of a very thoughtful group of students with similar career interests and goals. In Fall 2022, she was a UConn First Year Experience (FYE) Mentor. In this role, she led a weekly class with first year students and provided students with resources. Her goal was to make each student feel welcome and comfortable as a new Husky! Audrey hopes to study abroad in Italy in Spring 2024 as an opportunity to take classes and immerse herself in a new culture. After graduation, Audrey is interested in pursuing a career in marriage and family therapy. She hopes to complete her masters in Social Work at UConn or find a program in the Boston area.

Audrey is really excited to see what the future holds. In her free time, Audrey enjoys spending time with her family and friends, going to Cape Cod to spend countless hours on the beach, and speaking/learning Italian. She is also a huge Boston Bruins fan. You also can always find her with a strong cup of coffee in her hand!

Delaina Carlson is a first-year Ph.D. student working with Dr. Rachel Chazan Cohen. Originally from Pennsylvania, she earned her bachelor’s degree in Applied Developmental Psychology at the University of Pittsburgh. During this time, through research, internships, and work experience, she gained a love of working with infants and toddlers, along with their families. Over time, she has gained experience in child care, child care management, home visiting, early intervention, community organization, and research.

Most recently, Delaina worked for Dartmouth College in the Media and Health Behaviors Laboratory. Here she developed an interest in public health/nutrition messaging, mindfulness, and children’s media and health behaviors, including sleep, physical activity, and eating behaviors.

Her career has taken a winding path, but her ongoing mission is to support children and families. She hopes her experiences working with a variety of families across multiple settings will inform her future research. Specifically, she seeks to better understand individual and environmental factors that influence child development, family functioning, and health and wellness. Additionally, she plans to study the existing systems that support families, including child care, home visiting, and other interventions.

When not working, Delaina prefers to be outside with her husband. She loves to travel, hike, ski, garden, mountain bike, and rock climb. When inside, Delaina enjoys picking up new hobbies, whether it’s pottery, board games, or yoga.

Anne Berset is a first year Ph.D. student working with Dr. Preston Britner. Anne is originally from Northern Virginia just outside of Washington D.C. She attended the University of Denver for her undergraduate degree, where she worked as a research assistant in the Child Health and Development lab with Dr. Sarah Enos Watamura. Anne’s first experiences in the lab were on a project led by Dr. Watamura and her graduate student, Elly Miles, examining risk and protective factors for Iraqi and Syrian refugee caregivers who had resettled in the Denver area. During her time at University of Denver, Anne received several research grants to conduct a mixed-methods study examining a parent psychoeducational program designed to help parents manage stress and trauma. Anne then completed her senior thesis using cross-sectional data from the Buffering Environmental Stress Together (BEST) project in Dr. Watamura’s lab. In her thesis she examined the role of social support in mental health among diverse Early Head Start families who had experienced adversity. This work differentiated between informal support (i.e., friends, family) and formal support (i.e., government aid) to understand which type of support was associated with reduced depression and anxiety in caregivers following a history of childhood adversity. In addition to her research activities, Anne worked as a tutor in the Learning Effectiveness Program at the University of Denver, where she tutored undergraduate and graduate students with neurodevelopmental disabilities in Psychology and English.

After graduating from the University of Denver, Anne moved to Cincinnati, OH where she worked as a Clinical Research Coordinator with Dr. Bill Brinkman at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital. While in this role, Anne gained experience working with clinical populations in community and school-based settings by serving as the lead coordinator on several NIH-funded randomized controlled trials. Some of the projects she managed examined parent and adolescent decision-making about ADHD treatment and management as well as genomic testing.

Anne’s interest in working with adversity-exposed populations and designing accessible community-based interventions led her to the UConn HDFS program, where she hopes to continue researching the biopsychosocial consequences of trauma among minoritized groups and developing interventions that improve mental health outcomes. Anne is working with Dr. Preston Britner on a project examining higher-education outcomes among youth with a history of foster care. She is also a graduate research assistant on projects with Dr. Kevin Ferreira van Leer and Dr. Beth Russell.

When she’s not in school, Anne spends her time hanging out with her three cats (Tuxedo, Mione, and Sonny). Anne loves to read, hike, and watch dystopian and sci-fi movies. You will likely find her playing pool at a billiards hall when she’s not studying.

Graduate student Deb Tomasino accepted a position as a Project Manager at NYU Grossman School of Medicine where she’ll continue to pursue her interest in geriatric emergency medicine research.

Nikole is a first year PhD student who joined the HDFS program in the fall of 2023 to work with Lisa Eaton. Nikole graduated from California State University, Monterey Bay (CSUMB) with a B.A. in Psychology in 2022. While at CSUMB, Nikole worked as a research assistant in Dr. Shannon Snapp’s Support Young People Project Lab, researching topics such as bias-based bullying, LGBTQ+ inclusive curricula, and human sexuality with a focus on LGBTQ+ adolescents/ young adults. Additionally, she worked as a peer-mentor, writing fellow, and ambassador for an undergraduate research program. Nikole is also a Sally Casanova Pre-Doctoral Scholar, Undergraduate Research Opportunities Scholar, and earned a Ford Foundation Pre-Doctoral Fellowship Honorable Mention.

Nikole’s research interests broadly include human sexuality and health disparities in LGBTQ+ communities, queering relationship science, and positive and resilience factors in LGBTQ+ youth/ young adult development. She is also interested in exploring how health care accessibility impacts physical, sexual, and mental well-being in SGM adolescents and emerging adults. Currently, Nikole is excited to engage in research centered on HIV prevention and PrEP usage with Lisa Eaton. She is also eager to pursue projects with other faculty while at UConn, such as Ryan Watson and his team in the SHINE Lab.

When Nikole is not nerding out over research you can find her chasing after her five-year old, playing board games (ultra-competitively), and binge-watching shows from the 2000s.

Naomi is a first-year PhD student working with Dr. Eva Lefkowitz. Previously, Naomi graduated with honors from Brigham Young University (BYU), earning a B.S. in Psychology, with minors in Sociology and Family Science. While studying at BYU, she worked as a research assistant for the Couple Relationship and Transition Experiences (CREATE) Project, a longitudinal study following newlywed couples over each year of marriage. Naomi was also the lab manager of Dr. Melissa Alcaraz’s Young Adults Prospective Tied Migration (YAPTM) Project, a qualitative interview project seeking to understand how emerging adults make goals and decisions about work and moving within the context of their romantic relationships. At BYU, she also worked in Dr. Chelom Leavitt’s Sexual Mindfulness research lab, which led to her research interests in sexuality, sexual health, and sexual education.

Naomi is currently working with Dr. Eva Lefkowitz in the Developmental Aspects of Sexual Health (DASH) lab. She looks forward to starting her master’s thesis soon, and plans to examine the association between religiosity, sex education, sexual health, and sexual anxiety. Naomi greatly values how research can improve the lives of individuals and families, therapy practices, and policy. After earning her Ph.D., Naomi hopes to become a university professor, as she loves teaching and research equally.

When she finds time away from work, Naomi enjoys reading, playing video games, hammocking, traveling, caring for her plants, and spending time with loved ones. Naomi is also a passionate environmentalist and worked for a solar company designing solar systems for customers’ homes for four years.

Graduate Student Ben Renley and Associate Professor Ryan Watson (with Helene Marcy) wrote a research brief for the Collaboratory on School and Child Health that addresses the role stage laws and geographic region play in gender minority youth’s gender affirmation experiences. Click here to read the brief.