Congratulations to graduate student Rui Wu, who was awarded a UConn 2022 Wood/Raith Gender Identity Living Trust summer fellowship!

Congratulations to undergraduate student Sophie Lindsay who earned two HDFS awards!  Sophie worked for two years with the DASH project, the first year fully on WebEx before she met anyone in person.  Sophie participated in a range of projects, held her own with a group of graduate students, trained and supported other students, and collaborated on multiple conference presentations, so has earned the Outstanding Involvement in HDFS Research award.

In addition to all of her research accomplishments, Sophie also supported the department as a member of the curriculum committee, and by volunteering her time at multiple departmental recruiting events, so has also earned the Outstanding Senior in HDFS award.

Graduate Student Eleanor Fisk was the April Spotlight for SRCD. Eleanor is currently an SRCD State Policy Fellow in the CT Office of Early Childhood (OEC). Learn more about Eleanor’s experiences here: https://www.srcd.org/news/april-2022-spotlight-srcd-us-state-policy-fellow-eleanor-fisk

Qianxia Jiang has an interdisciplinary background in obesity prevention and intervention, psychology, health equity, and agricultural economics. She plans to graduate with her Ph.D. in May 2022. She is interested in the factors that contribute to obesity-related disparity and inequities, including the influences of built environments on health risks in marginalized groups, and applying this knowledge to inform interventions to promote healthy living. Qianxia first discovered her passion for obesity research as an undergraduate when she conducted research assessing how a food selection inhibitory control training game of children’s response inhibition affected eating behavior.

Qianxia has worked with professors from different departments on multiple projects at UConn. She conducts both quantitative and qualitative research with her advisor, Dr. Kim Gans, on an NIH-funded evaluation study of a multicomponent intervention that supports and empowers family childcare providers to improve the food and physical activity environments in their homes. She first learned about health equity and policy research by working with Allied Health professor Dr. Kristen Cooksey Stowers on multiple studies related to built food environments, disparities in food insecurity status, health quality, diet quality, and weight status. Beginning last summer, Qianxia was involved in an interdisciplinary grant that examines the association between the changing market structure and health outcomes. She also examined how changes in food retail market concentration relate to racial and ethnic inequities in food access over time. Qianxia has published several peer-reviewed publications and presented her research at both international and national conferences.

Following graduation, Qianxia will become a postdoctoral scholar at the Center for Children’s Healthy Lifestyles and Nutrition, Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, Missouri. This fellowship opportunity will provide training in novel ways to measure physical activity, behavioral epidemiology, and implementation science.

In her spare time, Qianxia loves hiking, snorkeling, kayaking, and traveling. She plans to get advanced open water certificate in Hawaii this year. She has two cats (Tiger and Coyote).

Sabrina Uva (HDFS ’22) was featured in UConn Today for her advocacy work: Read the article here.

Tracy Walters in the winner of the CETL Outstanding Graduate Teaching Award! Tracy served as a solo instructor for two courses, remotely, during the 2020-2021 academic year, and has also served as a TA and a graduate student advisor for the department.  Congratulations Tracy!

Graduate student Kaleigh Ligus was recently selected as the inaugural summer public policy fellow at AcademyHealth. In this fellowship, she will work alongside the Director of Advocacy to advance the mission and objectives of AcademyHealth through advocacy, public policy, education, and policy communication.

Graduate student Samantha Lawrence’s recent publication on family-based weight stigma was featured in an article in ConscienHealth: Read the article here.

Samantha (Sam) Lawrence is a Ph.D. candidate dedicated to the study of identity-based stigma and health among LGBTQ+ individuals, folks with high body weight, and individuals with intersecting marginalized identities. She conducts quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-methods research related to these interests at the Rudd Center for Food Policy & Health with her doctoral advisor, Dr. Rebecca Puhl. Sam also collaborates on projects in the DASH and SHINE labs, under the mentorship of Drs. Eva Lefkowitz, Kay Simon, Lisa Eaton, and Ryan Watson, related to LGBTQ+ young people’s interpersonal relationships, experiences of stigma, and overall well-being.

Sam recently successfully defended her dissertation on weight communication and stigma in the family context. She conducted three studies using three different participant samples—including a multinational sample—and mixed methodologies. Collectively, findings from these studies underscore the prevalence and ramifications of family-based weight stigma in six Western countries, especially from members of one’s immediate family (e.g., mother, romantic partner), and highlight the myriad qualitatively distinct forms family-based weight stigma can take (e.g., teasing, passive aggressive remarks, social exclusion). These findings highlight the need for weight stigma reduction efforts and public health messaging campaigns to target family relationships, helping family members to reduce their internalized weight bias and engage in more supportive, rather than stigmatizing, communication about weight-related health with their loved ones.

In addition to honing her research skills while at UConn, Sam has had the privilege of mentoring more than a dozen undergraduate research assistants and Honors students and teaching several HDFS courses, including Research Methods in Human Development, Diversity Issues in HDFS, and Adolescent Development. In recognition of her commitment to mentorship and teaching, she received the 2019 Outstanding Instructor in Human Development and Family Sciences Award, the 2020 University Outstanding Graduate Teaching Award from the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning, and the 2020 Mentorship Excellence Award from the Office of Undergraduate Research.

Sam is incredibly excited for her professional next steps. This summer, she’ll be joining Dr. Marla Eisenberg and her team as a post-doctoral research scholar at the University of Minnesota in the Division of General Pediatrics and Adolescent Health. As part of Dr. Eisenberg’s mixed-methods Protection at the Intersection for Queer Teens of Color (PIQ-TOC) study, Sam’s research will focus on the health and experiences of LGBTQ+ adolescents with multiple marginalized social positions.

Outside of her work, Sam enjoys distance running (she completed 3 marathons and a trail ultramarathon in her time as a graduate student), hiking, Peloton workouts, practicing French, tending to her house plants, and—most of all—spending time with her loved ones.