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.