HDFS Communicator, Fall 2008 - Human Development and Family ...

New Faculty in HDFSAssistant Professor Keith Bellizzi, joins HDFS after spending five years at the National CancerInstitute in Bethesda, Maryland as a Health Scientist in the Office of Cancer Survivorship, Divisionof Cancer Control and Population Sciences. Keith received his Ph.D. in HDFS at the University ofConnecticut in 2003 and subsequently completed a three-year postdoctoral training fellowship incancer prevention and control at the National Cancer Institute. He also received his Master’s inPublic Health (epidemiology) in 2004 from George Washington University. His research andpublications have focused on understanding the health related quality of life of older cancersurvivors; the role health behaviors play in attenuating late health effects of cancer; resilience andposttraumatic growth in the aftermath of cancer; and caregiver/family issues. Keith’s work oncancer survivorship has received national and international recognition and has been featured indiverse media outlets, including The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The AustralianFinancial Review, The Yomiuri Shimbun, and CURE Magazine. Keith is currently teaching the undergraduate course HDFS2004W Research Methods in HDFS. Keith was a member of the Bristol-Myers Squibb 2005 Tour of Hope National CyclingTeam, a nine-day, 3,300 mile cross-country bike ride with Tour de France champion, Lance Armstrong, to raise publicawareness about cancer research and survivorship issues. In recognition of his commitment to cancer control efforts,manifest in his research, public speaking and outreach activities, Keith received a Governor’s Citation from Governor Robert LEhrlich, State of Maryland, in 2006. Keith has also been featured in UConn’s “40 Under 40” publication (see p. 12).Assistant Professor Annamaria Csizmadia, joins HDFS at the Stamford regional campus this fallafter recently completing her doctoral degree in HDFS, with graduate minors in Black Studies andInternational Development at the University of Missouri-Columbia. Annamaria’s research to datehas encompassed four areas: social-emotional adjustment of children of color ; multiracial youth;racial identification; and immigrant and low-income children and families. She is interested inpredictors of development that are culturally relevant for a specific group (e.g., racial identity,group-specific parenting behavior, and other distinct individual, family, and community-levelcharacteristics). Her most recent and present work focuses on the developmental trajectories ofBlack-White biracial children between kindergarten and fifth grade. In her research she examinesrelations between parents’ racial designation of their biracial offspring and children’s socialemotionaldevelopment over time. In addition, Annamaria is also interested in exploring thepotential moderating effects of child-, parent-, and school-level factors on these links.As part of the HDFS faculty at the Stamford regional campus, this fall she is teaching HDFS 2004W: UnderstandingResearch Methods in HDFS. Next semester she will be teaching HDFS 2001: Diversity Issues in Human Development andFamily Studies and HDFS 1070: Individual and Family Development. Annamaria is looking forward to teaching a graduatecourse at the Storrs campus during fall 2009. A native of Hungary, Annamaria has also lived in Germany and is fluent in threelanguages! She and her six-year-old daughter Sarafia are new residents of Stamford, CT.Assistant Professor Rachel Tambling, joins HDFS after spending the past four years atthe University of Georgia where she received her Ph.D. in Child and Family Development withan emphasis in Marriage and Family Therapy. Rachel’s research centers on factors that influencesuccessful outcomes in couple therapy, and she is most interested in client factors that influencechange across the course of therapy. Currently, Rachel is examining clients’ expectations abouttherapy and how those expectations are formed, communicated to others, and influenced byothers early on in therapy. Her other current projects examine the influence and conceptualizationof client motivation to change in couple therapy. Rachel is currently teaching HDFS 5762:Practicum in MFT and HDFS 5763: Individual Supervision in MFT. In the spring she will teachHDFS 3319: Family Pathology and HDFS 5320: Special Issues in Family Development. Rachelloves animals and has five cats, three dogs, and three birds, all rescued from situations of animal neglect or cruelty.1