Former Students

Graduate Students

Kaleigh Ligus, M.A.

Kaleigh is a doctoral student in the Human Development and Family Sciences department at UConn. She completed her Masters' degree in 2019 at UConn, and entered the PhD program in the same year. Her research focuses on health policy aimed to improve quality of life for older adults living with chronic disease.

 

 

Sinead Sinnott, M.A.

Sinead Sinnott is a doctoral student in the Clinical Psychology program at the University of Connecticut, with a specialization in health psychology. Her research interests include stress, coping, and resilience, with an emphasis on post-traumatic stress disorder and mindfulness-based therapies. She was formally  a study coordinator for Drs. Park and Bellizzi's study focusing on resilience among cancer survivors.

 

Kate E Dibble, Ph.D.

LinkedIn | NIH Bibliography | Research Gate Profile

Dr. Dibble is currently a research fellow in medical oncology and medicine at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School, respectively. In 2022, she was selected to a prestigious fellowship, the Helen Gurley Brown Presidential Initiative at Dana-Farber (Helen Gurley Brown Foundation) for her project focused on longitudinal cancer survivorship experiences, concerns, and unmet needs among young metastatic breast cancer patients and survivors. From 2020-2022, she spent two years at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in the Department of Epidemiology via the Cancer Epidemiology, Prevention, and Control T32 postdoctoral program (T32CA009314) funded by the National Cancer Institute. During her time at Johns Hopkins, she received the Carol Eliasberg Martin Scholarship to fund her work on providing ongoing prophylactic and survivorship care for BRCA1/2-positive women from disparate backgrounds. She also received awards from the American Society of Preventive Oncology (ASPO) and the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) during this time. Previously, Dr. Dibble graduated from UConn with her Ph.D. in Human Development and Family Studies with a specialization in health and wellbeing and is a former student of Dr. Bellizzi. As a doctoral student, she received a grant co-written by Dr. Bellizzi to highlight and explore the pertinent gaps in genetic counseling for those with BRCA1/2 mutations in the United States.

 Dissertation Topic: Genetic Counseling for BRCA1/2 Mutations: Women’s Experiences, Preferences, and Psychosocial Outcomes of Counseling

Elizabeth Siembida, Ph.D., MPH

Elizabeth was a former doctoral student of Dr. Keith Bellizzi. After graduation, Elizabeth went on to do a postdoctoral fellowship at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in the Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences in Bethesda, MD. She holds an M.P.H. with a concentration in Epidemiology and Biostatistics from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Elizabeth is currently an Assistant Professor in the Center for Health Innovations and Outcomes Research at Northwell Health. 

Dissertation Topic: A Developmental Examination of Patient Engagement and Quality of Care in Adolescent Oncology

 

Dalnim Cho, PhD

University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center

Department of Health Disparities Research

Division of Cancer Prevention and Population Sciences

Dissertation Topic: Health Behavior Changes from Adolescence to Emerging Adulthood: A Multilevel Modeling Perspective

 

Alison G. Wong, PhD

jkgbMarriage and Family Therapist
Research Processes Administrator
Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, CA

Dissertation Topic: “Couples Coping with Cancer: An Exploratory Study of
Blame, Perceived Control, and Communication Patterns”

 

Cammy Kiely Froude, PhD

unnamed

Medical Family Therapy Postdoctoral Fellowship
University of Colorado and St Mary’s Family Medicine Residency Program in Grand Junction, CO

Dissertation Topic: Women’s Healthcare Experiences Across the Breast Cancer Continuum: Retrospective Perceptions of Medical and Social Support Networks”

In the News:  ABC News Interview with Cammy www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttXaKpj8yYE

 

Jennifer H. Wortmann, PhD

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Postdoctoral Fellow VA Boston Healthcare System

Publication: Park CL, Wortmann JH, Hale AE, Cho D, Blank TO. Assessing quality of life in young adult cancer survivors: development of the Survivorship-Related Quality of Life scale. Qual Life Res. 2014 Oct; 23(8):2213-24.

 

 

Steven Schmidt, PhD

8yo
Assistant Professor of Psychology at Wilson College, Chambersburg, PA

Dissertation Topic: Posttraumatic Growth Reported by Emerging Adults: A Multigroup Analysis of the Roles of Attachment, Support, Coping, and Life Satisfaction

Publication: Schmidt, SD, Blank TO, Bellizzi KM, & Park CL. The relationship of coping strategies, social support, and attachment style with posttraumatic growth in cancer survivors. J Health Psychol. 2012 Oct;17(7):1033-40

Undergraduate Students

The Lab has had the pleasure of working with many undergraduate research assistants over the years. Many of our students have gone on to graduate school for a variety of degrees, such as Masters in Public Health, Physicians’ Assistant, Masters in School Counseling, Doctor of Nursing Practice, and medical school at UConn. Our students have also gone on to accomplish impressive research careers at VA hospitals, Mass General Hospital, Harvard Medical School and private consulting firms.

Samantha Kaishian '17 Annika Anderson '20 Valentina Atehortua '20 Melissa Nowak '20 Jason Chan '20 Maimouna Sy '21
Sarah Chen '21 Brittany Jimena '21 Trane Kessler '21 Julia Levin '21 Francisco Carrillo-Alvarez '22 Hannah Anselmo '22
Qingli Hu '22 Carolyn Wolf '23 Sascha Siegel '23 Rose Karvandi '23