Lisa A. Eaton is a social and behavioral health scholar with training in psychology and public health who is primarily interested in social determinants of health and well-being. Her work focuses on the multi-level impact of social factors on linkage, access, and retention to social services and healthcare among diverse populations, particularly among those who have been experienced violence and stigma. She has developed and evaluated multiple interventions to improve health outcomes among minoritized populations. Lisa has served as Principal Investigator at Institute for Collaboration on Health, Intervention, and Policy since 2011 and as the Associate Director of the Southeast HIV/AIDS Research and Evaluation Project and Associate Director of the Sexuality, Health, Intersectional Experiences (SHInE) Lab. She began her studies at UConn in 2000 and earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology and her Ph.D. in social psychology. She completed her postdoctoral training in public health at Yale University.

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Ryan J. Watson is an associate professor at the University of Connecticut. His program of research is focused on reducing health disparities among sexual and gender minority (SGM) youth and young adults. Motivated by the urgent need to reduce the inequities in health for vulnerable populations, Watson focuses his scholarship on SGM youth and young adults, their relationships within family and school contexts, and their health experiences. He currently focuses on the health (in particular, substance use and disordered eating) among SGM adolescents (funded by NIH, R03DA046827) and emerging adults. His research utilizes data from my LGBTQ+ National Teen Survey, a dataset of 17,000+ SGM youth aged 13-17 from across the United States. Watson’s research has been featured on CNN, NPR, Washington Post, Live Science, USA Today, and several other media outlets. His current program of research (funded by NIH, K01DA047918) focuses on preventing health disparities (e.g., HIV) through prevention and intervention strategies (e.g., PrEP) attune to intersectionality.

Preston A. Britner, Ph.D., is a developmental and community psychologist and professor in the Department of Human Development and Family Sciences at the University of Connecticut. His work focuses on preventing family and interpersonal violence, promoting positive outcomes for youth, particularly those involved in foster care, and strengthening community-based supports for vulnerable families. Dr. Britner’s research spans child maltreatment prevention, supportive housing for families involved in child welfare, youth mentoring, and child–parent attachment. He brings a long-standing commitment to addressing sexual and domestic violence, including co-chairing UConn’s 2009 campus-wide Metanoia on preventing violence against women and serving on the board of a local domestic violence organization. His scholarship and public engagement emphasize primary prevention, policy-relevant research, and translating evidence into practice. Dr. Britner is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association and has received multiple awards for mentorship, teaching, and public engagement. He is also Editor Emeritus of the Journal of Prevention and has contributed extensively to research on family violence, child development, and community-based interventions.

Chenglin Hong is an Assistant Professor in the School of Social Work at the University of Connecticut, and the Director of the SHIC lab. His research focuses on addressing health disparities among sexual and gender minorities through community-based participatory research and innovative approaches including eHealth, mHealth, and technology-based intervention and data science techniques.

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Jolaade Kalinowski is an assistant professor in the Department of Human Development and Family Sciences at the University of Connecticut. Kalinowski is a behavioral cardiovascular researcher. Her research pertains to the role of chronic stress in cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk reduction in Black women. She is particularly interested in the unique role that stress plays in elderly Black women’s cardiovascular health, and how stressors may contribute to health disparities. She is interested in: (1) advance understanding of the complex interactions between psychosocial, behavioral and community-level factors contributing to CVD disparities in Black women; and (2) developing, testing and implementing innovative, scalable interventions to mitigate the adverse health effects of stress in Black women.

Eva S. Lefkowitz is a professor of Human Development and Family Sciences at the University of Connecticut, where she served as Department Head for ten years. Prior to coming to UConn, she was a professor of HDFS at Penn State. Her research focuses on physical, cognitive, attitudinal, and psychological sexual health and identity during adolescence and the transition to adulthood. She uses a developmental perspective to examine predictors of negative and positive aspects of sexual health, and the broader health and relationship implications of sexual health and identity. Her most recent line of research considers well-being among LGBTQ+ young adults, particularly during stressful times, such as during the COVID-19 pandemic and during academic transitions. Dr. Lefkowitz has served as a principal investigator, co-investigator, or faculty mentor on projects funded by the NICHD, NIAAA, NIDA, NIA, and the WT Grant Foundation.  

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Ray L. Moody is an assistant professor in the Department of Human Development and Family Sciences at the University of Connecticut. His research examines the impact of social and psychological stress on substance use and sexual behavior among sexual and gender minorities. His current projects examine the impacts of substance use on sexual behavior and adherence to HIV prevention strategies in the context of intersecting stressors. Moody earned his Ph.D. in health psychology and clinical science from The Graduate Center of the City University of New York. His dissertation was funded by an R36 grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse and focused on executive attention and emotion regulation as mediating mechanisms linking syndemic conditions and HIV transmission risk behavior among sexual minority men. He completed his postdoctoral fellowship in the NIDA-funded T32 Substance Abuse Epidemiology Training Program at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health.

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Nikole Babcock is a second-year Ph.D. student in the Department of Human Development and Family Sciences. Her research interests broadly include SGM health disparities, sexual authenticity and sexual communication, and sexual violence among emerging adults. She is particularly interested in research that promotes positive sexuality and healthy relationships.

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Peter McCauley is a third-year Ph.D. student at the University of Connecticut in the Department of Human Development and Family Sciences. Broadly, he is interested in researching sexual and gender identity development and intervention methods that promote positive adjustment in adolescence. He is particularly interested in the emotional experiences that come from experiencing bias-based harassment and how these shape the development of SGM youth.