UConn Health OB-GYN chair Dr. Danielle Luciano explains how treatments for endometriosis and fibroids offer hope for those struggling with infertility.

Prosthodontists are dental specialists with expertise spanning from single-tooth restorations to full-mouth rehabilitation, to aesthetic transformations to complex implant reconstructions.

“For the first time in years, I can actually chew.”

While Irena Hentea’s smile looked perfect from a distance, a few missing molars and a persistent infection at the back of her mouth inhibited her ability to eat and caused both pain and anxiety. After an ENT advised her that the infection could spread to her jawbone, Hentea knew she needed to act accordingly. However, her fear of the dentist, along with being uncertain on whom to call to address this complex issue, caused her to hesitate.

“I had so much fear to go and get it done,” Hentea says. “And I made a lot of calls, but I couldn’t get a straight answer on cost or even a simple consultation. I just heard ‘no, we don’t do that.’ This felt like a big deal, and I did not want to blindly walk into something this important.”

After navigating a maze of referrals and uncertainty, Hentea found her way to the UConn School of Dental Medicine’s post-graduate prosthodontics clinic. Her treatment, under the care of first-year resident Dr. Dariel Kovetski, involved eliminating infection, restoring lost structure, and rebuilding her ability to function with dental implants.

“I feel really lucky to have happened upon this specialty,” Hentea says. “I now know they are not just the experts in implants but can handle both the surgery and the restoration.”

Today, the infection is gone, and Hentea is on her way to a fully functional smile. While her restorative work continues, seeing the correct specialist for her situation has changed her outlook on dental care.

“The fact that they removed all that infection was such a big relief,” she says. “I have full confidence in what they are doing. It’s going to improve my ability to eat—for the first time in years I can actually chew.”

When Dentistry Becomes Reconstruction

Many patients arrive to the dentist after years of incremental fixes. Over time, small mismatches can compound into larger problems. For Christine Wagner, after undergoing extensive dental work, including multiple crowns and implant-supported restorations, she noticed things were not holding up.

“At first, I trusted everything had been done correctly,” she says. “But over time, things started to fall apart tooth by tooth. My bite did not feel stable. The implants were failing and I felt my teeth became a liability.”

Her case required a complete revision, including removal of failing dental implants placed at another center, replaced by a complex reconstruction to restore her bite.

“When I came to UConn, third-year resident Dr. Audrey Brigham explained what would go into the planning and execution of rebuilding my smile,” Wagner says. “Her preparedness, enthusiasm, and attention to detail was on another level. That’s when I realized going to a prosthodontist is a different level of care. She rethought everything. It was a complete restoration that changed my life.”

The difference is something she feels every day. “My teeth feel natural again. I can eat, speak, and smile without second-guessing it. After years of failed dental work, I knew I needed something different. What I needed all along was a prosthodontist.”

The students ranged from a second-semester freshman to a ready-to-graduate Ph.D. candidate. Together, they shared $35,000 in prize money.

“The students we met this year were extremely serious about entrepreneurship and wanting to bring their ideas to the market,’’ says iQ director Kevin Gardiner.   “Every year, the quality of their ideas grows stronger, and the bar keeps getting higher. They are really, really sharp students who have the grit that it takes to succeed as entrepreneurs.”

As in the past, the competition drew students from a large swath of majors within UConn. Some 170 UConn students participated in the entrepreneurship workshops, with more than 30 entering the formal competition. While last year’s cohort created startups that capitalized on artificial intelligence, this year’s companies were more diverse.

The 2026 iQ competition was sponsored by alumnus and angel investor Ashok Bahl ‘06 MBA. Bahl was so impressed with the teams that he increased the total prize money from $30,000 to $35,000.

The winners were selected by 16 judges, including venture capitalists, startup owners, and other experts in business, all of whom volunteered to spend Saturday judging the competition.

The following companies were selected among the top five new UConn startups:

Elyton Addresses Need for Manufacturing Innovation

The first-place winner is startup Elyton, which is creating an automated metal- finishing platform for complex geometries and difficult-to-machine alloys. The system combines pulsed electrochemical machining with robotic multi-axis tool pathing to remove material and produce consistent, high-quality surface finishes.

Elyton’s approach is uniquely suited to address a major bottleneck in additive manufacturing. Metal 3D printed parts often have rough, intricate, and delicate surfaces that are difficult or impossible to post-process using traditional methods.

“A simple example would be finishing a complex 3D printed metal aerospace or medical part that is difficult to polish using traditional tools,’’ says co-founder Krish Bhuva ’27 (ENG), a materials science and engineering major. “Our process uses electrochemical machining to improve surface finish without physically contacting the part. There are companies in machining and finishing broadly, but we believe our automated and flexible approach for complex geometries is highly differentiated.’’

Bhuva and co-founder Colin Sheardwright ’27 (ENG), a robotics engineering major, are the president and vice president of UConn Robotics, where they have been leading a team of 25 students designing and building an underwater remotely operated vehicle for the 2026 MATE ROV World Championship in Newfoundland, Canada.

“We have both always been interested in advanced infrastructure, automation, and building real systems, which naturally led us toward entrepreneurship and starting a company together as roommates,’’ Bhuva says.

“My biggest takeaway from iQ was how valuable it is to clearly communicate the problem you are solving,’’ Bhuva says. “Strong technology matters, but being able to explain the value in a simple way is just as important.’’

Elyton’s leadership will use iQ’s $12,000 grand prize for next steps, which include moving into lab space at the UConn Depot Campus next month, purchasing additional equipment, adding staff, and expanding the company’s prototype capabilities.

InfinityPay, A Tuition-Payment Platform, Took Second Place

Thembi Loga ’28 (ENG), a computer science and engineering major and an already established entrepreneur, took second place and a $10,000 prize with InfinityPay. He developed the fintech platform to make it easier for parents and school administration to handle tuition payments.

Loga is a native of Malawi in Southeastern Africa. Many schools there rely on fragmented, manual systems, including paper records and spreadsheets, leading to poor tracking of student accounts and administrative inefficiencies.

InfinityPay provides a secure, transparent, and fully digital payment experience, allowing schools to collect fees through mobile money, bank transfers, and card payments, while enabling real-time tracking, reconciliation, and structured payment plans.

Loga thinks it would be popular in his home nation and throughout Africa.

“Through Innovation Quest, the most valuable thing I gained was learning how to refine and clearly communicate our business as we actively build and grow InfinityPay,’’ he says. “Working with experienced mentors and entrepreneurs helped me think more strategically about execution, scalability, and how to move from building a product to scaling a real, impactful business.’’

Loga became interested in entrepreneurship from a young age, and in 2023 founded InfinityMX, a software development company offering web and mobile app development, branding, and marketing services. He’s worked with over 15 clients and completed more than 20 projects.

With InfinityPay, he led product development and built the platform himself, leading the company from vision to execution, backed by a strong team of strategic advisors.

“Our immediate next step is securing our Payment Service Provider (PSP) license so we can operate as a legal payment processor in Malawi,’’ he says. “We have two schools ready to pilot once the license is approved. We’re also actively exploring funding opportunities to help us scale quickly and efficiently.’’

‘Swipe Dining’ Makes Meal Preferences Easier to Find

Swipe Dining is a mobile app that helps UConn students browse dining hall menus, filter by allergens and dietary preferences, and find food that fits their needs across all 19 dining locations.

The startup, the brainchild of Sean Howard ’29 (BUS) took third place and a $6,000 award. A health-conscious student, Howard was looking for an easier way to get nutritional and other information. He even included a feature so students could be alerted when their favorite meal is being served.

“I’m most looking forward to going to market and seeing this app help as many students as possible,’’ Howard says. “The funding through iQ will allow me to accelerate the process, and I hope to see my app in [multiple] schools this fall.’’

Howard says the biggest lesson he learned from iQ is to take advantage of UConn’s resources.

“When [associate director of the Werth Institute for Entrepreneurship & Innovation] Kathy Rocha recommended the iQ program in January, I was hesitant to apply because the app was just an idea at the time,’’ Howard says. “I quickly learned that the valuable part of the iQ program isn’t just the funding but also the mentorship and guidance I received along the way. The virtual workshops, as well as the iQ mentor meetings, were crucial to the development of the app and were a huge reason for my success.’’

Since it launched in February, Swipe Dining has been downloaded 1,000 times. Howard hopes to introduce the service at other colleges. “I think there’s definitely a market for it. I think there’s a problem to be solved,’’ he says.

MadeByMe! Fights Theft of Creative Work

One of the biggest challenges for media creators is how easily their work can be pirated. That’s what motivated Carina Adams-Szabo ’26 (CLAS), a senior majoring in political science and psychological sciences, to create MadeByMe!

MadeByMe! is a simple “one-click” protection tool for creators and can be built directly into social media apps. When a creator uploads a photo or artwork, they can toggle a switch that marks the post as theirs and tells AI programs they do not have permission to use it. The system puts an invisible “shield” over the content that keeps it looking perfect for human followers, but makes it unreadable or corrupts its database if an AI program tries to scan or copy it.

The company took fourth place and a $3,500 award. Adams-Szabo’s business partner is Abdullah Rashid.

“What is especially exciting to me is how quickly this has all come together. MadeByMe! did not exist in January, and I am now working on producing pilot-ready versions while also planning to pitch to [startup funding and support network] Y Combinator,’’ Adams-Szabo says. Her team also won first place in AI & Creativity at HackUConn in February.

“Our belief is straightforward,’’ she says. “Visibility should not automatically mean consent. A creator should be able to share work publicly without surrendering control over how that work is used, learned from, or monetized. That is what MadeByMe! is built to do.’’

The creator economy is significant, estimated at $250 billion and growing, with more than 165 million new creators joining since 2020. Competitors offer tools that create visible distortion. MadeByMe! is not just technically novel but practical to adopt, she says.

The company’s next steps include more advanced testing, more discovery work with creators, and beginning partnership conversations with platforms and marketplaces.

“MadeByMe! Is not anti-AI. It is not anti-innovation. It is pro-consent, pro-individual, and built for the reality of where this market is going,’’ she says.

affirmHER Merges Science and Hair Care

Adanma Akoma ’26 Ph.D. has purchased and then thrown away her share of hair products that just didn’t work on her tightly coiled, afro-textured hair.

She took her expertise in materials science and engineering and created affirmHER, a haircare system designed specifically for her hair type developed with principles from materials science. Her startup took fifth place in the iQ competition and won a $3,500 prize.

“affirmHER was created to address a gap in the haircare market for tightly coiled hair textures, which often experience dryness, breakage, and repeated trial-and-error with products not specifically designed for their structural needs,’’ she says. The product line is built on understanding hair as a fiber.

“While the haircare industry is highly saturated, many products are still developed with a one-size-fits-all mindset. affirmHER takes a more science-informed approach by focusing on how fiber structure, moisture retention, and fragility differ in tightly coiled hair,’’ Akoma says. “Hair is often viewed through a beauty lens, but healthy beauty starts with understanding and caring for the structure beneath it.’’

One of the most valuable lessons from Innovation Quest was learning how to clearly communicate both the problem and the opportunity, regardless of what you are pitching, she says. “As a scientist, I was challenged to think not only technically, but also from the perspective of founders, judges, customers, and future partners,’’ Akoma says.

Her next step is to continue research and development, refine formulas through testing and feedback and build a strong foundation for product launch.

“My doctoral work helped me develop expertise in nanostructures, and it was also where my interest in innovation grew significantly. I have been fortunate to receive multiple prestigious awards for my independent research, reflecting the discipline, creativity, and problem-solving mindset I now bring to affirmHER,’’ she says.

“My interest in affirmHER came from both personal experience and observing how overlooked certain consumers remain in product development. As someone with tightly coiled hair, I have personally experienced the time, cost, and frustration of maintaining hair with products that often fail to meet its needs,’’ she says. “I wanted better solutions that help people reclaim their time, spend more intentionally, and manage their hair with confidence. I have always been drawn to solving practical problems through research, design, and entrepreneurship.’’

The five iQ teams also received an invitation to the Summer InQbator, a UConn business accelerator. They will be joined by Crescent Intelligence, a medical billing and payment software, and Nereis, a miniaturized robotic inspection probe for complex industrial machinery, enabling access to spaces that conventional tools cannot reach.

The UConn Story Slam, held on April 14 at the Black Box Theatre in the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry, offered six students to perform nonfiction personal stories in front of an audience.

This event, hosted by the UConn Humanities Institute for the second time, featured performances by their 2026 UCHI Student Ambassadors.

“These narratives crafted by UConn students exemplify how the work of creating, listening to and interpreting stories don’t just help us understand each other better, but help us understand ourselves and how we might navigate the challenges of living in our current moment,” says Anna Mae Duane, the director of the UConn Humanities Institute.

From diaries to condiment statues, these student storytellers weaved the intricacies of their personal lives into captivating and real performances.

Sugita Mahendarkar ’27 (CLAS) opened the performance with her story that took audience members on a journey of her life through her diary.

Starting from an early entry from the first grade, Mahendarkar vulnerably shared snippets from her journal that shaped the young woman she has grown into today.

“As I flip through the literal pages of my life, I can trace the lineage of who I’ve been. Messages and doodles that capture a collection of moments, but whose meanings continue to grow with me,” says Mahendarkar, who opened up about culture, finding herself and growing into her identity through revisiting and reviving her journaling.

Jenna Ulizio ’26 (CLAS) followed with the story, “Shipcake,” right after PJ Bukkali ’27 (CLAS) and the story “Size Me Up.”

Ulizio and Bukkali shared personal familial stories with the audience, each bringing a unique sense of humor and perspective to the stage.

The final three storytellers, Tomas Hinckley ’27 (CLAS), Nicole Young ’26 (CLAS) and Rebecca “Rebe” Wahl ’29 (BUS) took the stage with stories focused on activism, speaking up, and identity.

In Young’s performance of her story “Beyond the Edges,” she led the audience through pivotal moments in her high school career that forced her to reflect on conformity, fitting into the “normal” path and representing identity.

“I’m tired of asking to squeeze into someone else’s frame, their perfectly curated image of me. Not because I didn’t belong, but because I feel most seen just beyond where the frames can’t reach,” says Young, as she closed her story.

The last performance was Wahl’s story, titled “One Mississippi,” in which she shares her truest, bubbly personality with the audience, while also letting them in on her personal struggles.

“That means I spend so much time thinking, like literally sitting in silence. Yeah, actual silence. I promise I could do that. And just thinking about the things that I want to do, and the projects that I want to make, and the events that I want to go to, and what I wish I had,” says Wahl, who delivered a chatty and energetic performance while touching upon a breadth of emotions. “I’m terrified that so much of this time is gonna be sucked up with the thinking part, and there’s gonna be no none of my life left for the actual doing part. I’m terrified that I won’t be seen.”

Across the six stories told in the theater, the audience was met with thought provoking and reflective stories about identity, growth and the vulnerabilities of life.

The UCHI Student Ambassadors spent their semester working with Jon Adler and Gillian Epstein, who founded The Story Lab at Olin College in Massachusetts, to write nonfiction personal stories and turn them into performances.

“Storytelling is a deeply human, natural thing. Scholars from a huge variety of disciplines, it all sort of converged on the idea that storytelling is this human adaptation. It is embedded in who we are and what we do,” says Epstein, an associate professor of English at Olin College. “Yet, we are born without words, let alone stories. So, this is something we all need to learn to do, and we learn that by hearing and receiving stories of other people.”

The process culminated in the Story Slam, which was attended by an audience of students, faculty, and community members.

“What’s amazing about stories is they take something so internal, and seemingly just sort of contain within an individual. They put it out there in the world, and so weirdly and strangely, no matter what it is and what they’re saying, you’ll find a way in. You’ll find a way to connect,” says Epstein.

The Story Slam is a key component in the UCHI’s Connections/Disconnections Initiative, which aims to explore and address loneliness, connection and disconnection at UConn and beyond through events and community partnerships. This partnership with The Story Lab fosters the goals of this UCHI initiative by allowing students to share their individual perspectives and experiences on finding connection.

In their introductory marks, Adler and Epstein invited the audience to fully engage with and be moved by these stories.

“Stories help us understand the values that connect us, and they really help us attend the parts of our communities that might otherwise be silent and in the background. And in doing this work, we think quite deeply about the work that it does for our storytellers as individuals. But then the work that it does for the broader community of people who are here to receive these stories and go on to share their experience of hearing them,” says Epstein.

UConn’s is one of seven U.S. medical schools with an overall grade of ‘A,’ up from an ‘A-’ last year and representing a new high. The report card takes into account curriculum, interdisciplinary outreach, community outreach, support for student-led initiatives, and campus sustainability.

Sustainability is in the curricula in both the medical and dental schools and in the internal medicine residency program.

“We discuss the importance of clean water and air, and a livable climate, as fundamental to human health in a series as part of the Health Systems Science course,” says Dr. Kirsten Ek, assistant professor of medicine and member of UConn Health’s sustainability working group..

In late January, students took part in a zero-waste event as part of a community health panel in North Hartford, bringing reusable food containers and utensils to a community historically overburdened by landfills and incinerator waste. Two months later, first-year medical and dental students heard from two local community members sharing their experiences with health harms related to pollution.

“In part this served as a reminder of the critical importance of considering environmental determinants of health when taking care of patients,” Ek says.

The topic of the April 7 Health System Sciences class was climate and health, including how sustainable practices in health care can reduce its carbon footprint.

“And from the graduate medical side, for the first time ever this year, internal medicine residents had an educational half-day session on climate and environmental health, which included ways health care can reduce carbon emissions,” Ek says.

The UConn John Dempsey Hospital operating room is one particular area at UConn Health that has been focusing on sustainability for several years now.

“Sustainability initiatives in the OR are making a tremendous impact on the OR’s carbon footprint at UConn Health,” says Dr. Adam Fischler, OR medical director. “Reduction of anesthetic gas usage, minimization of material waste, and better HVAC management are making a difference.”

Fischler reports UConn Health installed 14 new anesthesia machines, equipped with sustainability features, in the operating rooms and electrophysiology lab. Volatile anesthetic gas usage is down more than 50%. New machines can safely lower fresh gas flows to as low as 0.3 liters per minute. The potential for reduction of greenhouse gas emissions is 75% or greater. The OR also has reduced is hourly air exchanges, which saves energy.

Perhaps the most significant, measurable sustainability success since Earth Day 2025 is at the Creative Child Center on UConn Health’s lower campus. In the nine months since energy efficiency improvements were completed, the building is using half the energy.

The improvements were part of a state pilot program to reduce the building’s carbon footprint using new technology known as ultra-high performance heating, ventilation and air conditioning (UHP HVAC).

Connecticut Innovations, the strategic venture capital arm of the state’s Office of Manufacturing, fully funded the project, in which the Shelton-based firm Budderfly installed the UHP HVAC at the child center on UConn Health’s lower campus to demonstrate the potential benefits by way of a 12-month pilot. The new system, combined with a changeover to LED lighting throughout the building, saved nearly 46,000 kilowatt hours from June through February, a 51% reduction in energy use compared to average usage over those same months. At 18 cents per kilowatt hour, it’s a savings of more than $8,600.

It’s one of several sustainability successes UConn Health reports for Earth Day 2026.

“More important than us reporting on our ongoing sustainability efforts is using them to illustrate how we all can take steps to make a difference and contribute to the collective effort,” says John Lombardi, UConn Health’s director of facilities engineering and sustainability and chair of the sustainability working group. “We also use the opportunity to learn how one area contributed and others can engage with similar efforts. This way smaller things add up.”

Other sustainability highlights and initiatives at UConn Health include:

Connecticut GreenerGov Awards

• Trailblazer Award for OR sustainability team and anesthetic gas minimization/reduction
• Honorable mention for Fischler and Karen Curley, senior director of nursing in the OR, as “Eco Champions”
• Honorable mention for Natural Gas Savings.
• Honorable mention for All Fuels Savings.

Recycling

An upward trend going back to 2022 continues, with nearly 319 tons of recyclable materials diverted from UConn Health’s waste stream in 2025, up 2.7 % from 2024, and more than 17% over four years.

Composting

UConn Health implemented a food composting program with the vendor Blue Earth in August 2024. Since then, Blue Earth has converted nearly 30 tons of food waste from UConn Health into compost soil.

Lighting system upgrades

UConn Health has replaced old fluorescent lighting with LED lighting in mechanical rooms and stairwells in the L Building (lab portion of the main building) and the University Tower, resulting in an estimated savings of 200,000 kilowatt hours per year, or approximately $36,000.

“Our achievements are significant and noteworthy, especially considering the additional challenges as our medical center grows and much more energy and waste is generated to accommodate growing patient volumes,” Lombardi says. “For example, adding an additional operating room or linear accelerator increases our greenhouse gas footprint while simultaneously we are trying to drive down to meet goals.”

At the UConn School of Medicine’s Department of Public Health Sciences, pollution is both an academic and research focus.

Assistant professor Misti Levy Zamora studies environmental health and engineering, notably, how transportation-related pollution from fossil fuels directly impacts morning commuters in their own cars, highlighting the importance of cleaning up our transportation in the state for our health.

Department Chair Doug Brugge has more than 50 published papers on health impacts of traffic-related pollution.

“Public health, I think, frequently does not get the attention it deserves, because the benefits are more invisible to people,” Brugge tells Dr. Anthony Alessi on his “Healthy Rounds” podcast. “If you don’t get cancer or don’t have a heart attack because someone… regulated toxins in the drinking water, or in my field, the pollution in the air, it’s invisible. You just don’t know that it happens.”

Looking ahead

Projects now or soon to be underway at UConn Health include heating distribution piping insulation, which will improve efficiency in maintaining water temperature. It’s a $1 million initiative, with utility company incentives covering nearly $900,000 of that. Lombardi estimates it should only take two years for UConn Health to recover its portion of that expense through enhanced energy savings.

Starting this year, UConn Health is using technology known as Electrocell to treat the water for its cooling system without the need for sand filters, which require hundreds of additional gallons of water daily to rinse.

“It breaks down the particles in the water by electrolysis and it works like a magnet that pulls all the particles out, so it makes the water really clean,” Lombardi says.

The cleaner water cleaner will minimize the buildup of film on the cooling system’s coils and tube, optimizing efficiency and capacity.

Additionally, facilities crews are conducting periodic inspections of mechanical systems, known as “retro commissioning.”

“Through time, things wear out,” Lombardi says. “We also have a lot of projects going on where we’re tapping into existing systems and there simply is not enough capacity to serve the new expanded areas. So what we’re doing is, we’re going back to each area and making sure it’s working the way it was supposed to when it was new, and then if there are more demands on it than when it was new, making sure you’re running it at a capacity that is efficient.”

One example of this is the recalibration of sensors to optimize HVAC system ventilation and use outside air when temperatures are ideal for free cooling and heating of spaces.

Some student and resident outreach events planned in the near future include the sustainability interest group’s sustainable thrifting event in the student lounge April 26 to May 2, inviting students and staff to donate or thrift.

Additionally, the Internal Medicine Community Health Alliance Track is collecting donations of gently used clothes, which will go to the UConn John Dempsey Hospital social work teams for patients in need.

Associate dean for research George Bollas has been selected as a Fulbright Scholar Alumni Ambassador, joining a competitive national cohort of scholars chosen to represent and promote the prestigious Fulbright program. 

As part of the 12th cohort of the Fulbright U.S. Scholar Alumni Ambassador Program, Bollas will serve a two-year term sharing his Fulbright experience, mentoring prospective applicants, and advancing international academic collaboration across his professional networks. The role also includes conference engagement, campus visits, advocacy efforts, digital outreach, and collaboration with the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.  

“Being part of the Fulbright Program has been one of the most meaningful experiences of my career,” says Bollas. “I’m honored to serve as an Alumni Ambassador and to help expand access to global research opportunities, while showcasing the strength of international collaboration at UConn and across the engineering community.”

The alumni ambassador role includes specialized training and engagement with the U.S. Department of State Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, which administers the Fulbright Program. Bollas will participate in an orientation and training in Washington, D.C. later this month. In May, he will support the Institute of International Education’s efforts to advocate for the Fulbright Program on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., during Fulbright Advocacy Days. 

During the 2024-2025 year, Bollas conducted research in Greece to investigate the end-to-end feasibility of ammonia as a fuel. As a Fulbright U.S. Scholar, he conducted research at the Chemical Process and Energy Resources Institute of the Centre for Research and Technology Hellas in Greece, examining ammonia as a hydrogen carrier for decarbonizing transportation and industry. 

“This recognition reflects the caliber of scholarship and global impact that define our department,” says Kelly Burke, head of the UConn Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. “George’s selection as a Fulbright Alumni Ambassador underscores the prestige of our faculty and the strength of our research enterprise, as well as our commitment to advancing innovation through international collaboration.” 

Bollas received bachelor and doctoral degrees from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece and then worked as a postdoctoral research associate in the chemical engineering department of MIT. At UConn, he is a professor in chemical and biomolecular engineering, and director of the Pratt & Whitney Institute for Advanced Systems Engineering.  

He is leading efforts to develop multidisciplinary collaborations across academia, industry, and government, and is engaged in clean energy entrepreneurship. His work integrates fundamental research, systems engineering, and policy-relevant innovation to support the global energy transition. His Fulbright experience has advanced his work, bridging fundamental research, systems engineering, and policy-relevant energy innovation.

Though he says he’s not an adrenaline junkie, Quirós-Navarro says this challenging work is not for the faint of heart, and thought impossible by some. Climbing 130 to almost 200 feet (40 to 60 meters) above the forest floor into treetop ecosystems requires specialized equipment and knowledge. This means there are not many others conducting research like this, and explains why so much about these ecosystems remains unknown. Quirós-Navarro explains this study is the result of observations collected over time from 169 trees representing 29 different species.

“One of my biggest questions was how mammals use the space. On the ground it is easy to tell where the mammals walk because you can find the path,” says Quirós-Navarro. “For example, in the tropics, tapirs make paths in the understory that other animals use for easier travel. I wondered if mammals in the canopy ever come to the ground and how they communicate with each other.”

The locations of latrines give important insights into animal activity, including communication, and Quirós-Navarro noticed this intriguing pattern of animals frequenting certain trees for their bathroom breaks. After observing the same pattern over and over again, he was surprised to find not only that multiple species use the same latrine in this canopy ecosystem, but that the latrines were localized in just one species of tree, the strangler fig (Ficus tuerckheimii).

The ominously named strangler fig is so called due to its growth habit. Quirós-Navarro explains the fig wraps itself around a host tree and, as the fig grows, it squeezes the life out of the host tree, which after dying, rots away, leaving a hollow, lattice-wrapped cylinder. The trees grow to eclipse neighboring trees while their branches grow horizontally to form a platform where the latrines are frequently located. Quirós-Navarro thinks the tree’s unique architecture has something to do with the decision to establish latrines there.

“I was thinking there was a pattern and I showed it to my friend and co-author biologist Tim Chamberlain,” he says. “Then he started looking for this in strangler figs, because they live from Florida to Colombia and surprisingly, he climbed a strangler fig in Honduras and found a multi species canopy latrine.”

They decided to continue this project and over the years, and especially along rivers, Quirós-Navarro says now it is harder to find a strangler fig without a multi-species latrine.

“They are always in the same tree species, even if they are in a different mountain range than the one we used for the camera deploying, it doesn’t matter but they are always there,” says Quirós-Navarro.

The next step in the research is to build a network analysis to study the connectivity of the trees along the river to better understand the movement of the animals. Quirós-Navarro says that if you think about how humans communicate, a logical place for connecting is a bridge that links the two locations. Since strangler figs connect both sides of the forest along a river, this could be a reason they serve as such popular pit stop sites.

These findings lend important new insights into the inhabitants of this under-studied ecosystem. Quirós-Navarro says that in all his years of placing camera traps in the canopy, the maximum number of species he had seen on one camera was four, yet in the communication hubs of the strangler fig latrines, he has spotted 18 different species interacting in a single tree, and also gleaned exciting information about some of the canopy’s most elusive species.

“For example, sloths climb down trees and poop on the ground. This is a mystery for ecology, because why would they put themselves at risk like this? With this research, we found that they also use canopy latrines. We also saw several species of opossums, ant eaters, and an arboreal felid called the margay, which is one of the most endangered species that is also very difficult to detect. The latrine is a good place to study them because they seem to come once a month.”

Though his passion was originally in studying the plants, Quirós-Navarro hopes to continue to study the roles the strangler fig plays for the ecosystem, including studying the interaction between animals and plants. Canopies are nutrient-poor places, and for that reason, plants called epiphytes have developed special adaptations to take the nutrients from the air to thrive in these locations. Quirós-Navarro says researchers are interested in how mammals that visit these latrines serve as an input of nutrients into the canopy. Epiphytes including ferns and orchids are abundant around the latrines but many other types of plants, including small trees grow here, possibly due to the seeds deposited via the latrine’s visitors.

Quirós-Navarro hopes to study how these trees connect the canopy and the rolls they play in the ecology of different mammals.

“One of my goals is to see if the latrines are also being used by the tree as a kind of mutualism, where the mammals use the tree as their communication tower and the tree is taking nutrients from those using the latrine.”

This award, given to Dr. Katherine Fleming, assistant professor and predoctoral program director in pediatric dentistry, and Dr. Harshiv Karia, assistant professor in prosthodontics, enables faculty to pursue their independently chosen career development activities.

Dr. Anna Dongari-Bagtzoglou, professor and associate dean of faculty affairs, congratulated the award winners.

“This competitive award provides funds for faculty development activities that support the individual career path of each faculty,” said Dongari-Bagtzoglou. “The award recognizes Dr. Marion Frank, a Professor Emerita, who has been a steadfast supporter of faculty development in the School of Dental Medicine. Congratulations to Drs. Fleming and Karia on receiving this award!”

Fleming and Karia will both be given $5,000 to support their research program development. Fleming plans to establish a sensory adapted dental environment for patients with special health care needs in the pediatric dentistry clinic and will pursue research projects on sensory-informed dental care in special needs children. Karia will develop expertise in consensus-based research methodology and curriculum leadership skills in digital dentistry workflows.

The awardees were chosen by the School’s Faculty Development Advisory Committee.

Q: Why did you choose the UConn School of Dental Medicine?

My wife and I fell in love with Connecticut on a trip prior to my interview with the dental school. We were fortunate to see New England during the fall season when the leaves had begun to change color. I had an incredibly positive interview experience and it just felt right to choose UConn. The faculty were so caring, the class size was small, the biomedical curriculum was enticing, and several alumni I contacted simply raved about the exceptional preparation UConn provided for the next steps in their dental journeys.

Q: Tell us more about your path to dental school?

I grew up in Sammamish, Washington, where I developed a love for sports, hiking, and kayaking. Some of these passions stemmed from my involvement in Boy Scouts, during which time I led the organization and shipment of disaster relief kits to Haiti following the 7.0 magnitude earthquake in 2010 as part of an Eagle Scout Project. While volunteering as a math tutor at my local elementary school for several years, I further developed a passion for mentorship and helping others.

I earned a Bachelor of Science in Exercise Science, with a minor in Spanish, from Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. After a year studying at Brigham Young University, I served an ecclesiastical mission for two years in Cali, Colombia where I learned to speak Spanish. Upon returning to my studies, I began gravitating towards a profession in healthcare while serving as a Spanish interpreter and phlebotomist at a free health clinic in Midvale, Utah. This clinic provides care for uninsured individuals and families.

Q: What activities were you involved with as a student?

I am a proud Urban Service Track/AHEC scholar, and have not only been an active collaborator on multiple interdisciplinary projects addressing issues of access to care, but also led the development and production of over 30 podcasts on interprofessional education, team-based care and social determinants of health. I also held leadership roles in the pediatric dentistry student interest group, the SPEA chapter, ASDA, and ADEA. I completed the ADEA Academic Dental Careers Fellowship program and, through that program, developed an AI facilitated chatbot to enhance caregiver and parental education in pediatric dentistry, done in collaboration with faculty at Dartmouth School of Medicine. I have been involved in multiple service/outreach activities, including CT Mission of Mercy, Special Olympics, and Head Start programming. I even had the chance to coach a youth soccer team in Plainville during my spare time!

Q: What’s one thing that surprised you about UConn?

I was surprised by how passionate the faculty are about their school, and the state they live in. They wear their UConn loyalty with pride and I was lucky to be trained by extremely qualified teachers who could have accepted prestigious positions elsewhere, but instead chose to stay at UConn and give back to their alma mater.

Q: What’s one thing every student should do during their time at UConn?

Go explore Connecticut and its surrounding states! My wife and I are enamored with this part of the country…there is so much to do and see! I would also highly recommend attending UConn sporting events. Go Huskies!

Q: Who inspired you to enter dental medicine? Or who was your favorite mentor here and why?

I had the pleasure of seeing my dad, a pediatric dentist, come home from work each night and tell stories about positive patient interactions he had during the day. I was inspired by how much he loved his job, and it provided a spark to explore the dental profession through shadowing and service while I was in my undergraduate education.

Q: Where are you heading for your residency placement? What do you look forward to the most? 

I will be pursuing advanced education in Pediatric Dentistry at The Ohio State University/Nationwide Children’s Hospital. I’m looking forward to taking the excellent patient-centered care I was taught here at UConn and using that to create positive experiences for children in the dental clinic.

Q: What’s one thing that will always make you think of UConn?

Apart from UConn Husky basketball games (which I will be tuning in to for the rest of my life), I will always think of UConn when I check-in on my fellow classmates and faculty members. We are all colleagues in the profession, and I look forward to continuing to collaborate with the people who I started this journey with.

Q:What’s it going to be like to walk across the Commencement stage and get your DMD?

Without a doubt, it is going to feel surreal! Time flies when you are having fun…and I thoroughly enjoyed my experience over the past four years. I’m sure I will get emotional seeing all the people who supported me all gathered together in the same venue.

Q: Any final words of wisdom for incoming students?

It’s impossible to definitively measure how many lives were saved or prolonged, or how much illness or disease prevented or made less severe, as a direct result of public health initiatives. Douglas Brugge, chair of the UConn School of Medicine’s Department of Public Health Sciences, joins Dr. Anthony Alessi to explain the “invisible” benefits of things like policies that regulate toxins in our water or pollution in our air, and discuss how COVID changed the perception of public health (and lessons learned from that).

If you don’t get cancer or don’t have a heart attack because someone… regulated toxins in the drinking water, or in my field, the pollution in the air, it’s invisible. You just don’t know that it happens. — Douglas Brugge

Listen now:

Find the transcript on Podbean.

Submit questions for “Healthy Rounds” to healthyrounds@uchc.edu.

Support comes from UConn Health Orthopedics and Sports Medicine and Coverys.

Last year, the Office of the Vice President for Research (OVPR) responded by deploying task forces to discuss strategies for diversifying revenue streams for UConn research programs. Central to these meetings were discussions of ways in which faculty could engage with businesses for sponsored research.

The task forces concluded that UConn faculty have a genuine interest in pursuing industry-funded research but need training and guidance to help. Results from a University-wide poll helped influence the conclusion.

As a result, UConn created the “Business Development for Individual Faculty Researchers” (BD-IFR) program. This multimodal instructional program combines classroom-style learning with skill-based professional development and personalized matchmaking.

The BD-IFR is a three-way collaborative effort, organized by OVPR Research Development Services Senior Specialist Anna Gault Galjan, OVPR, UConn Tech Park Business Development Manager Michael DiDonato, and molecular and cell biology Professor Nathan Alder. The program is designed to help UConn faculty identify established companies whose products or services align with their own research and to ultimately help them form partnerships to conduct sponsored work.

“The intent of the program is to assist faculty researchers to diversify their funding base,” says Gault Galjan. “But it is also to reassure faculty that industry collaborations don’t force anyone to compromise their science, research rigor, or methodologies. Our program provides faculty with the training, support, and hopefully the confidence to make those initial connections.”

The program is currently being launched as a pilot with 11 faculty members from the Molecular and Cell Biology Department. The faculty participants vary widely in metrics such as career stage and degree of familiarity with industry partnerships, representing a good cross-section of UConn faculty.

The underpinning pedagogy of the BD-IFR program is based on the business funnel – a foundational framework that maps the multi-stage journey from business partner engagement and relationship building to contract negotiations and project execution. The in-class, workshop-style portions emphasize key concepts in business development, strategies for identifying and contacting potential industry partners, and navigating the complex path to landing a contract.

The program also clearly outlines the required documents that must be prepared and signed at each step of the business funnel. Equally important, it highlights UConn resources, including those at Sponsored Program Services and Technology Commercialization Services, that are available to faculty throughout their industry partnership journey.

Through individualized mentorship, BD-IFR program participants are guided in developing materials necessary for industry engagement. These include value propositions that target specific companies, and a one-page description of a researcher’s portfolio that serves as a high-level, business-facing curriculum vitae.

An innovative component of the program is an AI-based matchmaking tool, NexusAI, designed by BD-IFR co-organizer DiDonato. This algorithm takes input describing a faculty member’s research and uses it to identify local businesses that are likely to be good fits for collaboration.

“Identifying the right company for a faculty partnership is a challenge,” says DiDonato. “It’s not solely alignment of research and commercial product – it’s about funding availability, shared culture and values, and ease of engagement. We must leverage every resource we have to facilitate introductions between faculty and industry innovators. NexusAI helps us do just that by rapidly assessing regional companies and building candidate lists for review. This is one tool of many that will help UConn dramatically expand its industry research, bringing more funding to UConn and ultimately translating more research into real-world solutions.”

Neag School of Education Professor Bianca Montrosse-Moorhead advised a pilot program evaluation for the BD-FR launch. An expert in evaluation, Montresse-Moorhead is supported by graduate student Tahirah David, a Harriott Fellow. Using a combination of quantitative and qualitative metrics, including feedback from the pilot participants, the evaluation will be invaluable in identifying success and areas for improvement as the program develops.

“The skills required to secure federal grants and conduct government-sponsored work, like identifying problems, conveying significance, and delivering results, are directly transferable to industry-sponsored research,” says BD-IFR co-organizer Alder. “This program shows faculty that making the pivot from federally funded to business-funded research isn’t as daunting as they might think.”

The pilot has now completed three in-person workshops, and the project is assisting the participants as they enter the business funnel to engage companies. As this pilot nears completion, the BD-IFR organizers are evaluating the program’s implementation and effectiveness to inform efforts to implement the program in other colleges and departments across UConn.

The BD-IFR has received helpful input from across UConn. Contributors include OVPR’s Research Development Services, Technology Commercialization Services, the Tech Park, UConn Foundation, and the Neag School of Education.

NSF CAREER Award recipient Farhad Imani, an assistant professor in mechanical engineering at the University of Connecticut, is tackling this challenge head-on through the development of a new class of intelligent robotic manufacturing systems that can inspect parts, interpret multimodal sensor data, and reason through uncertainty. 

Imani’s CAREER project, “Integrated Digital Thread for Self-Evolving Cooperative Robotics Remanufacturing,” uses remanufacturing as the proving ground, but the ambition is far greater. The real target is the next generation of robotic manufacturing systems that can handle variability and make informed decisions.  

“The next generation of manufacturing systems must do more than execute instructions,” says Imani. “They need to sense, reason, and adapt when the real world stops matching the plan.” 

In remanufacturing, no two components are the same. There are differences in damage, wear, and geometry, meaning a strategy that works for one part may fail on the next. This is where traditional automation begins to fall apart.  

Imani’s lab is building cooperative robotic systems capable of inspecting damage in real time, diagnosing what has changed, determining a feasible repair or manufacturing strategy, and adapting as conditions change.  

The goal is to shift from programmed automation to cognitive automation, where machines can reason through changing scenarios rather than relying solely on predefined instructions.  

While artificial intelligence has made significant strides in manufacturing, many current approaches still depend on static models, larger training demands, and black-box behavior that becomes fragile when conditions shift.  

Imani’s approach takes a different route. At the center of his project is hyperdimensional computing, a brain-inspired framework that combines multimodal sensing, engineering knowledge, physical constraints, and simulation into an interpretable decision loop.  

This intelligence is paired with an adaptive digital twin that runs rapid “what if” scenarios as the process unfolds. This helps the system evaluate options, refine decisions, and close the loop between prediction and robotic action. The result is a manufacturing system built to adapt, not just automate.  

Across industries like aerospace, energy, transportation, and defense, manufacturers are under pressure to do more than just produce parts at scale. They need reliable systems that can restore damaged assets, modify components to new specifications, intelligently respond to variation, and reduce downtime, scrape, and costly rework. 

A robotic system that succeeds in remanufacturing can improve how AI and robotics are deployed across inspection, process planning, and high-stakes manufacturing more broadly. 

“Factories shouldn’t just make components,” Imani explains. “They should be able to intelligently restore, upgrade, and extend the life of the systems we depend on.” 

For Imani, the CAREER Award is more than getting recognition for his past work, it is a platform to drive research on a larger scale.  

“This award is not the finish line,” Imani says. “It’s the moment a bold research direction gets the runway to become real.” 

Over the next five years, Imani’s lab will work to develop a unified manufacturing framework by integrating cognitive intelligence, embodied robotics, multimodal sensing, and digital twin technology. 

The award also strengthens UConn Engineering’s momentum in advanced manufacturing, intelligent systems, and robotics, positioning the university at the forefront of next generation industrial innovation. 

A core component of the CAREER Award is education and outreach. Imani’s project will give UConn students hands-on experience with robotic platforms, AI-driven decision-making, sensing systems, and digital twins. 

Planned initiatives include new curriculum modules, research opportunities, and partnerships with local schools, community colleges, and industry.  

“I’m not interested in training students for yesterday’s factory,” Imani says. “We’re building engineers who can design, think, and invent the manufacturing systems of tomorrow.” 

Now there’s another option.

LaunchPad, a TCS initiative introduced in January, offers startups access to the high-value services, mentorship, and community benefits available through TIP, without being formally accepted into the program. With LaunchPad, early-stage entrepreneurs can choose from a range of TCS services tailored to their needs without committing to dedicated lab or office space and the cost that goes with it.

“Launchpad reflects UConn’s commitment to supporting innovation across the full lifecycle,” says Abhijit Banerjee, Associate Vice President of Innovation and Entrepreneurship with UConn’s Office of Vice President for Research (OVPR). “From early experimentation to high-growth commercialization, it strengthens the overall pipeline and ensures promising ideas don’t fall through the cracks.”

The range of companies that might benefit from LaunchPad runs the gamut, says Steve Criss, administrator of TIP-Storrs. Some are building early proof-of-concepts or prototypes, while others are seeking early investment through the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs. Some may want to engage with UConn faculty or specialized research. Some want TIP’s structured support and services without the overhead.

“This is a critical on-ramp for startups that are not yet ready for dedicated lab space but have a well-defined business model and growth trajectory,” says Criss. “TIP LaunchPad provides the structure, community, and access to resources that help founders refine their strategy, secure early-stage funding, and position themselves for scale. It’s a deliberate step in our pipeline—one that connects promising companies to University assets and accelerates their ability to contribute to Connecticut’s innovation economy.”

For Zach Rome, founder & CEO a startup developing a novel, natural fluoride alternative, LaunchPad offered proximity to other entrepreneurs – something he lacked working from his home office. As a third-generation pharma entrepreneur with a handful of pharmaceutical startups under his belt, Rome already knew how to draft a business plan. What he needed, and found with LaunchPad, was the ability to network with fellow innovators face-to-face.

“There is real value in getting in front of people and having facetime,” says Rome, whose company Nateureka! is the newest startup to join LaunchPad. “I need involvement with other ambitious entrepreneurs working on their own things. In intangible ways, they will help me be successful. The tradeoff made sense for me.”

Ric Duncanson, founder and CEO of Marc Antoni Racing, sought something different. As a new entrepreneur, getting help with a business plan is exactly what he needed. LaunchPad also provided Duncanson with a business address, a place to meet with his team, which includes Alexander Dupuy, a UConn Assistant Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, and 3D modeling capability at the Advance Technology Laboratory (ATL) in Storrs.

“The technical stuff, I can navigate with my instincts,” says Duncanson, whose company is developing a fast-charging battery for electric vehicles. “The exposure that LaunchPad offers will help me navigate the startup ecosystem.”

TIP provides specialized wet labs, office space, expert mentoring, and access to UConn’s research resources – all of which accelerates the development of tech-based startups, particularly those connected to UConn. TIP currently has 33 companies operating out of sites in Storrs and Farmington, with 21 more in the pipeline. To accommodate the growth, TCS is adding a new space on UConn’s Depot campus in Mansfield – a site at 44 Weaver Road previously home to UConn’s Clean Energy Engineering (C2E2). Four companies have been approved to move into the Advance Tech Laboratory (ATL) building in Storrs.

“LaunchPad allows us to accommodate more early-stage companies and eventually integrate them into TIP,” Criss says.

UConn companies and entrepreneurs set records and milestones in FY25, despite a challenging innovation landscape nationally. TCS saw an increase in disclosures and affiliated startups, something leaders credit to a revised strategy and fresh approach that includes LaunchPad. The 117 invention disclosures reported in FY25 represent a 30% increase over the previous year. TIP also notched record growth, with a reported $9.9 million in revenue, double that of 2023. Additionally, TIP companies raised $108 million in funding in FY25, a 39% year-over-year increase, while the number of people employed by TIP companies grew to 286.

LaunchPad also provides access to co-working space, programming, venture development support, investor readiness, and connections to university resources and industry mentors through TIP’s Entrepreneurs-in-Residence program. A curated network of experienced business leaders and industry experts, EIRs works directly with startups to refine strategy and navigate scaling. Participants also receive complimentary memberships to BioCT and MassBio, as well as access to specially negotiated discounts through TIP’s vendor program.

As an arm of the OVPR, TCS facilitates tech transfer, intellectual property management and monetization, along with other facets of innovation and entrepreneurship. LaunchPad is one more way for the TCS team to extend those services and engage and build trust with faculty, notes Banerjee.

“Historically, early-stage companies that weren’t quite ready for TIP would go through our evaluation process and, if they didn’t meet the criteria, they were either declined or encouraged to come back later after further development,” Criss says. “What LaunchPad does is close that gap. It gives us a structured, intentional way to stay engaged with those founders—helping them strengthen their business model, refine their strategy, and build toward readiness for full incubation. It’s a more disciplined approach to pipeline development, and ultimately it allows us to support more startups, more effectively, at the earliest stages of their growth—further reinforcing UConn’s role as a driver of innovation and startup development across Connecticut.”

One hand rested on the bathroom counter. The other hovered near the flat space where her breast had been. The scar was raw and angry. The loss was quiet but enormous. Her body felt foreign.

In moments like these, people are often urged to be resilient – which can feel like being told to show no weakness, to push through no matter what. Or they imagine resilience as bouncing back: returning somehow unscathed to be the person you were before.

But standing in that bathroom, Maria knew there was no going back. And toughness wouldn’t change what had happened. The real question was how she could move forward, carrying this experience into her new reality.

Maria’s story, one I came to know personally, is far from unique. Loss, trauma and illness often bring the same wrenching questions of identity and the painful uncertainty of what comes next.

I’ve spent more than two decades studying resilience, particularly among individuals and families navigating these kinds of life-changing events. I am also a four-time cancer survivor and author of a new book, “Falling Forward: The New Science of Resilience and Personal Transformation.” If there is one myth I wish society would retire, it’s the idea that resilience means “toughness” or “bouncing back.”

Rethinking resilience based on research

Moments like Maria’s reveal something important: The way people tend to talk about resilience often doesn’t match how people actually live through adversity.

In popular culture, resilience is often equated with grit, toughness or relentless positivity. People celebrate the warrior, the fighter, the triumphant survivor.

But across research, clinical practice and lived experience, resilience is something far more nuanced, raw and human.

It’s not a personality trait that some people simply have and others lack. Decades of research show resilience is a dynamic process. It’s shaped by the small, everyday decisions and adjustments individuals make as they adapt to significant adversity while maintaining, or gradually regaining, their psychological and physical footing over time.

And importantly, resilience does not mean the absence of distress.

Research on people facing serious life disruptions shows that distress and resilience often coexist. For example, in my study of adolescent and young adult cancer survivors, participants reported being upset about finances, body image and disrupted life plans, while simultaneously highlighting positive changes, such as strengthened relationships and a greater sense of purpose.

Resilience, in other words, is not about erasing pain and suffering. It is about learning how to integrate difficult experiences into a life that continues forward.

How resilience really works

At one point, Maria told me she had started avoiding mirrors, intimacy, even conversations that made others uncomfortable.

“Well, you’re strong,” people would tell her. “Just stay positive. This too shall pass.”

But strength, she said, felt like a performance.

What ultimately shifted for Maria was not an increase in toughness. It was permission to grieve.

She began speaking openly about the loss of her breast; not just as a medical procedure but as a symbolic loss tied to identity, sexuality and womanhood. She joined a support group. She allowed herself to feel anger alongside gratitude for survival.

This kind of emotional processing turns out to be central to resilience.

My colleagues and I have found that people who actively process loss, rather than suppress it, demonstrate better long-term adjustment. Tamping down negative feelings may provide short-term relief, but over time it is associated with greater stress on your body and more difficulty adapting.

In other words, resilience is not about sealing the wound and pretending it no longer aches. It is about learning how to carry the wound without letting it consume your entire story.

Neuroscience supports this integration model. When people engage in meaning-making – reflecting on their experiences and incorporating them into a coherent life narrative – brain networks associated with emotional regulation and cognitive flexibility become more active. The brain, quite literally, reorganizes as you adapt to new realities.

Maria described the change simply.

“I don’t like what happened,” she told me. “But I’m not at war with my body anymore.”

That is resilience.

Practices that help build resilience

If resilience is about integration rather than toughness and bouncing back, how can you cultivate it? Research across psychology, neuroscience and chronic illness points to several evidence-based strategies:

• Allow emotional complexity: Resilient people are not relentlessly positive. They allow space for the full range of emotions, such as gratitude and grief, hope and fear. Paying attention to your feelings through strategies such as reflective writing or psychotherapy have been linked to improved psychological adaptation.
• Build a coherent narrative: Human beings are storytellers. Trauma can shatter one’s sense of self, but constructing a narrative that acknowledges loss while identifying continuity and growth supports adaptation. The goal is not to spin suffering into silver linings, but to situate it within a broader life story. For example, someone might say, “Cancer derailed my plans and changed my body, but it also clarified what matters to me and how I want to move forward.”
• Lean into connection: Isolation magnifies suffering. Social support is one of the strongest predictors of how well people are able to cope and move forward after illness or trauma. For Maria, connection with other women who had had mastectomies normalized her experience and reduced shame.
• Practice deliberate pauses: Intentionally give yourself some time to breathe. Mindfulness and contemplative solitude can strengthen your ability to regulate emotions and recover from stress. Pausing allows experience to be processed rather than avoided.
• Expand identity: Illness, loss and trauma reshape how you think of yourself. Rather than clinging to who you were, resilience often involves expanding who you are becoming. Research on post-traumatic growth shows that people often report deeper relationships, clarified priorities and renewed purpose – not because trauma was good, but because it forced reevaluation. Maria no longer describes herself simply as a breast cancer patient. She is a survivor, yes, but also an advocate, a mentor, a woman whose sense of femininity is self-defined rather than dictated by her anatomy.

Moving forward

We are living in a time of widespread burnout and rising mental health challenges, where cultural pressure to appear strong often leaves people silently struggling. An insistence on grit and relentless optimism can backfire, making people feel inadequate when they inevitably feel pain.

Resilience is not about returning to who you were before illness, loss or trauma. It is about becoming someone new: someone who carries the scar, remembers the loss and still chooses to engage with life.

Maria still pauses when she sees her reflection. But she no longer turns away.

“This is my body,” she told me recently. “This is my story.”

Resilience is not forged in the denial of vulnerability, but in its acceptance. Not in bouncing back, but in integrating what has happened into who you are becoming.

And that, I believe, is where real strength lives.

(Originally published in The Conversation)

The Elisabeth DeLuca School of Nursing was well represented at the Eastern Nursing Research Society (ENRS) Conference, with faculty and students presenting posters, facilitating panel discussions, receiving awards, and being elected to leadership positions within the organization.

ENRS is comprised of nurses and other individuals dedicated to advancing nursing research. Established in 1988, the society continues to promote health through innovative nursing science, according to its website.

The society provides attendees with valuable opportunities to connect with peers, mentors, and leaders in the field of nursing research. The conference fosters an environment that encourages collaboration, idea-sharing, and professional growth, allowing participants to build meaningful relationships and expand their academic and professional networks.

This year marked the 38th annual conference, held in Boston, Massachusetts, from March 25–27. The theme, “Strength in Nursing Science: Advancing Health Across Dynamic and Diverse Settings,” guided a robust program of research symposiums, poster sessions, exhibits, a member luncheon, and an awards ceremony—offering attendees a dynamic and engaging experience.

UConn Nursing Professor-in-Residence Tiffany Kelley, Ph.D., MBA, RN, NI-BC, FNAP, served as a panelist at this year’s conference alongside Leila Daneshmandi, Ph.D., assistant professor-in-residence in the College of Engineering’s Department of Biomedical Engineering. Their panel, “Nursing and Engineering Partnerships: Building Strength in Nursing Science Across Systems and Settings,” explored interdisciplinary collaboration and how cross-sector partnerships can drive innovation and improve health outcomes.

Leadership Recognition

Susan DeSanto-Madeya, Ph.D., APRN, FPCN, FAAN, was elected president-elect of the Eastern Nursing Research Society (ENRS), marking a significant leadership milestone and reflecting her impact on nursing science and research.

“We are incredibly proud of our faculty and students for their outstanding contributions at this year’s ENRS conference,” said Dean Victoria Vaughan Dickson, Ph.D., RN, FAHA, FHFSA, FAAN. “Dr. DeSanto-Madeya’s election as president-elect highlights the national impact of UConn Nursing and our continued leadership in advancing nursing science.”

Also on the executive board is Eileen Condon, Ph.D., APRN, FNP-BC, serving as a member-at-large for communications and Louise Reagan, Ph.D., APRN, ANP-BC, FAANP, FAAN, serving as the Research Interest Group member-at-large.

In addition, Michelle Cole, DNP, MSN, RN, CPN, received the Evidence-Based Practice Award, recognizing her meaningful contributions to the global community, as well as her impact on research, colleagues, and students. Ph.D. student Wilfred A. Elliam was also honored as a student award recipient at the conference.

Further demonstrating student excellence, three undergraduate honors students—Madeleine Willett, Zainab Kane, and Maryam Shabazz—were selected to present posters, highlighting the strength of UConn Nursing’s student research.

“Our students and faculty did a wonderful job representing the Elisabeth DeLuca School of Nursing, with an impressive showing of podium and poster presentations,” says Reagan. “It was also a great opportunity for students to network with nurse scientists and peers, build connections, and showcase their work. We are very proud of how well our students and faculty represented our school.”

Amidst this beautiful spring weather, it has been another transformative week for UConn Health. On April 15 we welcomed an additional hospital, the 50-bed Albert J. Solnit Hospital (“JDH-Solnit”) to our UConn John Dempsey Hospital (JDH) license. I want to pause here and thank the multi-agency teams that made this possible. I was so impressed with the speed, collaboration, and competency of the leaders and personnel of the Department of Children and Families, the Office of Policy and Management, and UConn Health. Other agencies which worked on aspects of this transition were Department of Social Services and Department of Public Health. Sitting in those twice-weekly meetings I felt proud to be an employee of the state of Connecticut.

We are now in a phase of working closely with JDH-Solnit leadership, employees and unions to ensure a seamless transition that elevates care for this important and vulnerable population of patients.

Going back to the word “transformation”: This is often a buzzword but, in our case, it’s real. If we count the 23 beds awarded to JDH in February of last year and the JDH-Solnit beds I just mentioned, JDH has grown from its historical size of 234 beds to 307 beds. If we then add the UConn Health Community Network beds at UConn Health Waterbury Hospital (357), our total bed count (across two separate licenses) is 664 beds. Once we add Bristol Hospital (157 beds) and Day Kimball Hospital (104 beds) to the UConn Health Community Network, this count will rise to 925 beds. With this size we will have substantially achieved the scale necessary to position ourselves for success in Connecticut’s consolidated health care ecosystem.

Scale is important but even more important is delivering high-quality, safe patient care. That must always be our focus as we grow. As you know we have achieved 10 consecutive A-ratings in safety from the Leapfrog organization and are the only hospital in Connecticut to receive Healthgrades’ Outstanding Patient Experience award for the last two years.

Awards are important validation, but nothing is better than real patient and employee stories. One such story is that of a life-saving response to a medical emergency on our lower campus last week. Anne Horbatuck, University Medical Group COO and VP for ambulatory services wrote the following account:

I wanted to share a very positive patient event that happened in our Musculoskeletal Institute third floor orthopedic area. A patient’s husband coded. The staff in orthopedics did not stop for a second and jumped into action, as did our fire department. The feedback the team received was that this patient wouldn’t have made it if it wasn’t for this heroic team including (nurse practitioners Jill Arcardi and Kayla Callanan, medical assistants Jacquline Vega and Yanira Ortiz, Dr. Craig Rodner, Dr. Anthony Parrino, Dr. Kevin Becker, who was passing by and noticed the patient, and, from our fire department, Lt. Joshua Levin, Capt. Anthony Ruggiero, Capt. Neil Prendergast, firefighter Brian Bonapace, and firefighter Scott Moro.)

Cindy Poglitsch, the clinical coordinator there, said, “This was really something impressive to witness! But as I mull it over again and again, it blows my mind what I saw. A man died in front of me, and I watched people that I work with everyday save him, twice. That is profound!! No second thought, no stop to think, just do, and they sure did!! That needs to be honored and celebrated!”

We have been in the process of doing mock drills in our outpatient areas. A number of times people think that there is no need as things like this happen only in the hospital, and no need to be BLS certified…well it does happen here. This “heroic” team jumped into action and saved this person. This is amazing and I can say that I am so very, very proud of this group and our team.

Do we always have things we can learn – yes – but this is a job well done and I wanted to THANK THEM for what they did, how they saved this person’s life and how their dedication, quality care is what we stand for here at UConn Health.

THANK YOU ALL!

Anne

I echo Anne’s sentiments – This story is a truly inspiring example of competence, caring and emergency readiness, but most of all how the physicians and employees of UConn Health make a real difference in people’s lives, in this case literally saving a life. Thank you to Jill Arcardi, Kayla Callanan, Jacquline Ortiz, Yanira Ortiz, Dr. Craig Rodner, Dr. Anthony Parrino, Dr. Kevin Becker, Lt. Joshua Levin, Capt. Anthony Ruggiero, Capt. Neil Prendergast, firefighters Brian Bonapace and Scott Moro, and everyone else who was involved.

Meanwhile, if you haven’t had a chance yet, I hope you can find a few minutes to read the story published on UConn Today about the life-saving care we provided to a young man who came to us with a rare and aggressive form of cancer.

This inspiring story is a perfect example of the compassion, expertise, collaboration, and patient-centeredness that defines our physicians and employees. It also exemplifies the reason for our deep academic mission for the people of Connecticut.

I’d like to express my gratitude to the many multidisciplinary team members involved for making both of these incredible stories possible.

I’d also like to share something I received from Mark Boxer, one of the members of the UConn Health Board of Directors, following an interaction he had with Beatrice Simmonds:

At the outpatient MRI center – [UConn Musculoskeletal Institute] – the front desk agent – Beatrice – is such a great ambassador for UConn. Can you make sure her boss knows.

She is so helpful and pleasant. And certainly loves her job. This is exactly who we need at front lines.

Best,
Mark

That note from Mark speaks for itself. Kudos, Beatrice, and thank you!

Switching to UConn Health finances, it’s hard to believe we are rapidly approaching the end of fiscal year 2026 (June 30) and are already preparing our budget for FY 27.  The good news is that for this year we have achieved our Project Thrive targeted savings. Some still has to be realized, i.e., brought into the budget, but we have identified the full $46.7M and will be able to balance the FY26 budget as we promised the board of directors a year ago. 

Just to wrap up our report on some of the metrics:

We have held the increase in our workforce to just 97 permanent positions so far this fiscal year. This is a smaller increase compared to the last two fiscal years and will help keep our salary and fringe expenses from increasing. However, we continue to add positions to revenue-generating areas.

In FY25 we averaged $424K in overtime per pay period. Through 21 pay periods of FY26 we are averaging $422K per pay period. If that pace continues we project an OT spend similar to last fiscal year.

The value of non-holiday compensatory time being earned per pay period this fiscal year is averaging nearly $22K. That average is still below the FY25 average. If we continue at this pace we may be able to save almost $200K compared to the previous fiscal year.

We are averaging almost $32K per pay period in salary savings in FY26 with the Voluntary Schedule Reduction Program. Our goal is to save $500K, and if we maintain the current pace we are very likely to exceed that target and end the year closer to an $800K savings.

Again, thank you for all your efforts on this year’s Project Thrive. As I mentioned in my last weekly update, we are now switching our efforts to planning for next year’s Project Thrive. 

Early last month, our new Torrington office quietly opened with the relocation of the internal medicine practice from our previous Torrington location. We now offer several additional services in the new location, at 507 E. Main St., including orthopedics, vascular medicine, and imaging, with lab services to follow next week, comprehensive spine next month, and more to follow later this year.

As we continue to seek fair reimbursements from payors, I have an update on Cigna. Good faith negotiations with Cigna are ongoing as we continue to pursue a fair agreement. We are awaiting Cigna’s response to our April 9 proposal, which consisted of fee-for-service rate increases and language revisions. To speed up Cigna’s response, an in-person meeting with our contracting team took place on Wednesday, April 15. Progress is slow but we continue to press forward.

Both Cigna and UConn Health have sent letters to patients informing them of the possibility that UConn Health will go out of network effective May 1 without an agreement. Obviously, we would like to avoid going out of network to avoid disruption for our patients, so I am hopeful we can reach a fair agreement soon.

Key dates to be aware of as negotiations continue in the coming days/weeks:

• On April 1, UConn Health stopped scheduling Cigna patients for services on or after May 1, 2026.
• • On April 14, UConn Health began canceling appointments for Cigna patients scheduled for services between May 1 and May 10. Cancellations will continue weekly until an agreement is reached.

Next week is Health Care Volunteer Week. Did you know we have a dedicated group of active, regularly scheduled volunteers supporting our guest services teams in the main building, University Tower, Outpatient Pavilion, and UConn Musculoskeletal Institute? In addition, volunteers generously give their time in the emergency department, medical records, our medical school, spiritual care, lost and found, the dental clinic, and in our Purposeful Visits program.

In total, 48 volunteers donate their time and talents to help enhance the patient experience across our organization. Please join me in thanking them for their generosity, commitment, and compassion.

As previously mentioned, UConn Gives is coming next week, April 21-22, and it’s a meaningful opportunity to come together as one UConn Health community. Over these two days, faculty, staff, students, alumni, patients, and friends will unite to support the programs and people making a difference across our institution. Every gift, at any level, helps strengthen the mission we share: advancing education, research, and exceptional patient care. I’m grateful for the many ways our community continues to show up for one another.

I encourage our faculty and staff to participate via a philanthropic gift to UConn Gives by supporting UConn Health and the cause that matters most to you. Whether you’re passionate about student success, research innovation, patient care, or workforce well-being, your participation sends a powerful message of pride in our work and confidence in our future.

I’m also pleased to share that every dollar you give to UConn Health during UConn Gives will be matched dollar for dollar (up to the first $10,000), thanks to a generous matching pool from the UConn Health executive team. Together, as one UConn, our collective support will have a lasting impact for everyone connected to UConn Health. Thank you in advance for your support!

Finally, how many of us can say we’ve had the governor proclaim a day in our name? That’s what Governor Lamont did this week, proclaiming April 15 as Petra Clark-Dufner Day. Petra is the director of the Connecticut Area Health Education Center (CT AHEC), and this honor recognizes her more than three decades of strengthening Connecticut’s health professions pipeline and expanding access to health care services in under-resourced communities. I invite you to read more about her and her proclamation on UConn Today.

Thank you, Petra, for being so amazing, and thank you to everyone reading this, for all the work you do.

Andrew C. Agwunobi, MD, MBA
Chief Executive Officer
EVP for Health Affairs
UConn Health

Dear Dr. Andy

Will UConn Health consider adding an MRI machine to the freestanding UConn Health Imaging facility at 5 Munson Road? I order a lot of breast MRIs, and I have had an increasing number of insurance plans approve the test but not the UConn facility because our MRIs are considered a hospital-based test. I have sometimes been able to get the UConn facility approved through multiple rounds of peer-to-peers with the insurance company, but it is time consuming and only intermittently successful even after explaining the importance of all breast imaging being done at the same facility with the same radiology group. I know MRI machines are very expensive, but adding a machine that is considered “outpatient” by insurance companies may help avoid the lost revenue of having to refer this imaging out of UConn Health.

Thank you for raising this; I’ve shared it with our leaders in radiology. Health insurances steer patients to outpatient imaging sites for their MRI imaging needs due to lower costs versus inpatient imaging sites. It’s why we added our outpatient MRI at UConn Health Imaging at the Brain and Spine Institute, 5 Munson Road, which has been a great success and imaging outpatients at full capacity. We certainly have the clinical demand for additional outpatient MRI imaging to care for our outpatients. Thankfully, patients from outside facilities are also looking to UConn Health for their medical imaging needs.

An additional outpatient UConn Radiology MRI would also greatly help decompress our single MRI at John Dempsey Hospital (JDH), which images both inpatients and outpatients. This would greatly decrease our wait times for imaging of our inpatients, improve our lengths of stay, and help ensure our patients at JDH would receive prompt outpatient imaging, once discharged.

The challenge is, adding additional outpatient and inpatient MRIs at UConn Health would require a certificate of need (CON), issued by the state of Connecticut.

There certainly is much validity to your suggestion, and I thank you for sharing it.

Have something you want to ask Dr. Andy? Submit your question on The Hub.

Hub Highlights

Get the details on this year’s UConn Gives, coming next week.

Learn more about a high-profile national role for Dr. Jane Grant-Kels.

Plus, read more about the colleague who had a day proclaimed in her honor by Governor Lamont.