This is a short week, and I hope it gives you some more time over the weekend to recuperate and care for yourself. Those who know me well will attest to the fact that I don’t usually watch much sports, but I had the privilege of attending the UConn vs. Michigan State men’s basketball game in Washington, D.C., last Friday. You might wonder why I am raising this in a weekly update. The reason is, I was actually there, with the UConn Foundation, to meet a subject matter expert and potential philanthropic supporter of our plan to launch the UConn Health AI Institute. After dinner we attended the game and it (as probably, the whole world knows) was a truly thrilling win. I didn’t stay for the next game against Duke on Sunday but again, as you all know, that game turned out to be even more amazing, so much so it’s difficult to describe. I can only say our student athletes — men and women — are unbelievably inspiring and make the rest of us so proud.

Given I am on the topic of sports, and a core theme of my updates is to thank all of you, I want to highlight the amazing work of our UConn Health sports medicine physicians who keep the student athletes safe and healthy.

That includes Dr. Robert Arciero and Dr. Allison Schafer, who have been traveling with the men’s basketball team as team physicians, and who are heading to Indianapolis for the men’s Final Four, and Dr. Katherine Coyner and Dr. Zachary Maass, who will be in Phoenix with the women’s team as they look to repeat as NCAA champions.

Dr. Maass also worked with the men’s ice hockey team along with Dr. Corey Dwyer, and I should also mention that Dr. Matthew Hall is a dedicated team physician with UConn Athletics and Dr. Anthony Alessi is a trusted consultant working closely with the program.

Our sports medicine physicians play important roles in ensuring the Huskies are ready to compete and helping them recover from injury – “unsung heroes,” as women’s basketball coach Geno Auriemma describes them in the promotional television ad we made for this year’s tournament:

If all goes well, we’ll be able to watch a UConn tournament basketball game every night from Friday to Monday. We wish the Huskies the best this weekend – win or lose, no one can dispute, both teams have had incredible seasons!

This week the senior leadership team and I spent a lot of time on a proposed partnership which I haven’t referred to in previous updates, but which has been an exciting effort occurring in the background. Specifically, UConn Health is working with the Department of Children and Families on a planned partnership that would establish the Albert J. Solnit Children’s Center–South Campus (“Solnit”), an adolescent psychiatric hospital in Middletown, as a satellite location of UConn John Dempsey Hospital. This collaboration with DCF reflects our shared commitment to delivering exceptional, high-quality, and specialized care for Connecticut’s youth while optimizing resources across agencies.

Pending required approvals, we expect the partnership to be effective April 15, 2026, and I will keep you updated.

Speaking about psychiatry, as all of you know, I like to round in different areas of UConn Health periodically to thank our great employees for their work and to better understand how UConn Health can support that work. This week I, along with Caryl Ryan, chief nursing officer and UConn John Dempsey Hospital COO, CFO Jeff Geoghegan, and Carlos Iitsuka, VP for business development and analytics, had the privilege to visit our outpatient psychiatry facility at 10 Talcott Notch.

I would first like to say how impressed I was at the leadership of Genice Nelson, nursing director, and Leslie Bell, administrative director. Over the years they have made an already wonderful service even better both in terms of staffing, equipment, the aesthetics of the space, the reduction in the backlog of patients and so much more. One recent change that has been welcomed by patients is the presence of a security officer who wands patients as they exit the elevator. I had the pleasure of meeting Richard Wells, who wanded me (as is appropriate). I can testify it was a good experience, and the guard also hands out candy if I had been nervous.

You may be interested to know that the practice has eight APRNs, 11 attending MDs with residency clinics, six Ph.D.s, and four licensed clinical social workers. They see about 100 visits a day and what is really interesting is that almost half of those visits are virtual. I had the pleasure to meet Dr. Linda Durst, medical director, and APRNs William Boafo, Sarah Napuli, and Bavitha Mathew, as well as a number of the other employees, including Lolita Felipe, clinical practice manager, nurse Carmelle Philippe, Drs. Surita Rao and Jayesh Kamath, social worker Nicole Durante, and clinic office assistant Ivette Martinez.

It was an inspiring visit that left me with two impressions: The first is that the psychiatry clinic truly makes a difference in patients’ lives every day. The second is that it’s the UConn Health employees, their passion, dedication, competence, vision and kindness that allow us to make that difference. My sincere thanks to each of you.

Within hours of my visit to 10 Talcott Notch, I learned of some very exciting news: The American Academy of Dermatology has elected our Dr. Jane Grant-Kels as its next president-elect. Dr. Grant-Kels was the longtime chair of our Department of Dermatology, now serves as vice chair, and is a professor of dermatology, pathology, and pediatrics. Not only is this a tremendous point of pride for our Department of Dermatology and our medical school, it’s also a well-deserved honor that recognizes Dr. Grant-Kels’ legacy as a renowned expert in the field of dermatology, and she is perfect for this role. She will become president-elect effective March 2027, and assume the AAD presidency March 2028. Congratulations to Dr. Grant-Kels!

I have a letter to share praising Dr. Amanda Ulrich, OB-GYN, as well as our nurses (edited for length and privacy):

From my first appointment Dr. Ulrich she made feel at ease, like my symptoms were real and treated me with respect and care, which is often hard to come by. As I continued my appointments prior to surgery, she continued to listen and want to get me back to my best self. Each step of the process she explained everything clearly to ensure I understood exactly what she would be doing in surgery.

On the day of surgery I had an incredible experience with each of the nurses I interacted with. I wish I could have taken notes on each of their names and write a story to express my gratitude for every one of them. Surgery is a scary process and each of these nurses came to me with a smiling face, checked on me consistently, told me a funny story or held a conversation with me when I was getting nervous or not feeling well. From the pre-op nurses to OR nurses to post op I had an absolutely amazing interaction with each of them.

Lastly, Dr. Ulrich is involved in a study around endometriosis. I am very happy to see that she and UConn Health are investing in women’s health.

Overall my experience was great and I would recommend Dr. Ulrich to any woman going through similar issues to my own, along with recommending UConn Health outpatient surgery overall.

This is just one example of the differences our work makes in the lives of people of Connecticut, and why our public academic medical center is a success story for the state of Connecticut.

As I alluded to in the opening we are engaged with the UConn Foundation on bringing that success story and our strategic plan’s enterprise-wide initiatives to potential donors. In fact, working with the Foundation to grow our philanthropic support is one of our strategic initiatives. In that vein I’d like to call your attention to UConn Gives.

UConn Gives returns to UConn Health this year on April 21-22. This is an annual campaign from the UConn Foundation that gives all of us an opportunity to come together around our shared purpose of patient care, educating tomorrow’s clinicians and scientists, and advancing research. We all can support this effort in our own way, as a donor or as an advocate. Please take a moment to learn more about UConn Gives 2026.

Finally, this is a holy weekend for many. Passover began at sundown last night and runs through next Thursday. Tomorrow is Good Friday and Sunday is Easter. Whatever this weekend means to you and your loved ones, I wish you a joyous holiday.

Thank you for all you do.

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

Dear Dr. Andy

I am trying to find a work/life balance while working nightshift within John Dempsey. At my previous job at a nearby hospital, they provided staff with a gym to use, while here we have to pay in order to use it. The fee is the same amount; not matter what tax bracket you fall under. Speaking with seasoned employees, there wasn’t always a fee to use the gym on campus. Why has there been a fee added for employees to use the gym? 

Thank you for writing and for sharing your perspective, which I’ve shared with our Office of Professional Well-Being and Engagement. I appreciate you raising this, particularly as a night-shift employee—finding time and space to focus on well-being during off-hours is not easy, and your point is an important one.

Since opening, the Wellness Center has operated as a membership-based facility. It is not a profit-making operation, so we set modest membership fees (less than $3.50/week) to help support operations, equipment maintenance and replacement, and wellness programming so the center can remain open, safe, and high-quality for our workforce. To ensure fairness and consistency, the fee structure is applied uniformly across employees.

At the same time, we are committed to offering a range of well-being resources that are available to all employees at no cost. For example, our upcoming 30-Days of Healthy Habits challenge and other programs throughout the year are designed to support physical, mental, and emotional well-being in flexible ways that can fit a variety of schedules, including night shift.

Thank you again for the question. Your feedback helps us continue to improve how we support the well-being of our workforce.

Is it possible to distribute the list of med students who matched and where they are heading? It would be really nice for those of us who know these students but haven’t interacted with them recently (coaches, etc.).

Thank you for the question. For privacy reasons, we’re not able to make this type of information widely available as requested here. Faculty should contact the student affairs office directly to work on individual basis to ensure an appropriate balance of information and privacy.

Thank you for raising this.

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

Hub Highlights

Baby Gracie with her mom and dad Andrea Garfield and Zachery Brown

The UConn Health Disparities Institute at the State Captiol for a menopause equity roundtable (Photo by HDI).

A grateful patient's thank you banner is visible in the sky above UConn Health in Farmington on Doctors' Day, March 30, 2026. (Photo by Kate Falotico)

A mom shares her remarkable story of how our coordinated care led to the delivery of her healthy baby despite a rare pregnancy complication.

Read about our Health Disparities Institute’s role in this year’s Health Equity Week, April 6-11.

Look! In the sky! A grateful patient flies a banner overhead on Doctors’ Day.

Find out which colleagues we’re recognizing as part of April’s Seasons of Gratitude.

Learn more about our 30 Days of Healthy Habits Challenge.

Plus, see our sports medicine experts on the road, as team physicians traveling with the Huskies as they seek NCAA titles in both men’s and women’s basketball.

Visit The Hub

Note: Unlinked content is only available on The Hub, for which you must be on the UConn Health network to access.

“Health Equity Week is a call for all of us to step into our civic responsibility,” said Ayesha R. Clarke, executive director of Health Equity Solutions. “The moment is now. States play a critical role in shaping public health, and if we want a Connecticut where everyone can thrive, we must all be part of building it.”

From advocacy day at the State Capitol to community events across the state, Health Equity Week is designed to activate residents — not as spectators — but as partners in shaping policy, strengthening communities, and advancing justice. And this year, one of the most anticipated events is the Health Equity Leadership Roundtable on April 7, hosted by HDI, from 12:30-2:00 p.m. at the Connecticut State Capitol during Advocacy Day at the Capitol.

A Leadership Roundtable Focused on the Urgent Realities Facing Connecticut Families
HDI’s Health Equity Leadership Roundtable, “Health at What Cost? How racial inequity prices CT residents out,” will convene local experts to examine how rising costs — from housing to childcare to healthcare — intersect with racial inequities to make health and wellbeing unattainable for many Connecticut residents.

The panel will be facilitated by Yvonne M. Alston, chief culture architect, CEO and founder of Indelible Impressions Consulting, LLC and Cecil Tengatenga, associate director, Connecticut Area Health Education Center (CT AHEC) will provide the closing. Panelists will include:

• Eva Bermúdez Zimmerman the Coalition director and co-founder of Child Care for Connecticut.
• Carline Charmelus the Operations and Equity director for the Partnership for Strong Communities.
• Ayesha Clarke the executive director of Health Equity Solutions.
• James Jeter the co-founder and director of the Full Citizen’s Coalition.

The panel discussion will be grounded in the Commission on Racial Equity in Public Health (CREPH) Strategic Plan, which HDI led through a statewide community‑based participatory planning and assessment process. The plan outlines actionable strategies, through policy recommendations, to address structural inequities and improve health outcomes for communities disproportionately impacted by racism and economic hardship.

“Connecticut cannot achieve health equity without confronting the economic pressures that make health unattainable for so many residents,” said Dr. Jeff Hines, vice president of the Office for Inclusion and Civil Rights at UConn and UConn Health. “This roundtable creates space for honest dialogue about the policies and investments needed to ensure every resident has a fair chance at health.”

UConn Health CEO Dr. Andy Agwunobi emphasized UConn Health’s responsibility of health systems to lead by example. “As the state’s public academic health system, we have an obligation to advance equitable care, strengthen community partnerships, and support policies that reduce barriers to health,” he said. “Events like this help us align our efforts with the needs and voices of Connecticut residents.”

View the 2026 Health Equity Weeks calendar of events set for April 6-11.

Civic Engagement as a Pathway to Equity — and a Learning Experience for Students
Health Equity Week also highlights the awesome power of civic participation, especially among young people stepping into advocacy roles for the first time.

Malia Hunt ’26 (UConn Social Work), and HDI Fellow, played a key role in advancing the state’s menopause equity legislation, providing both written and oral testimony during the 2026 regular legislative session.

“Being part of the legislative process showed me how much impact residents — especially students — can have,” Hunt said. “Testifying wasn’t just about policy; it was about standing up for the well-being of people with ovaries across Connecticut. It made me realize that civic engagement is part of our responsibility to each other.”

Her experience reflects HDI’s commitment to preparing the next generation of health equity leaders through hands‑on policy engagement, research training, and community partnership.

Connecting Policy, Research, and Community Voice
Throughout the week, HDI will highlight its 2026 Legislative Priorities, which focus on two urgent areas: menopause equity and healthcare affordability. These priorities build on HDI’s years of community‑driven research and statewide partnerships.

Key legislative areas of interest for advancing health equity include:

• Implementing a statewide menopause screening and treatment pathway
• Recognizing menopause as a qualifying condition for reasonable workplace accommodations
• Strengthening hospital financial assistance policies
• Funding Medicaid reimbursement for community health workers
• Studying a public option for health insurance
• Protecting HUSKY eligibility regardless of immigration status

These priorities reflect HDI’s legislative mandate to enhance research and the delivery of care to minoritized and medically underserved communities.

UConn’s Role as an Anchor Institution
UConn President Radenka Maric underscored the University’s commitment to advancing health, wellbeing, and economic mobility for all Connecticut residents.

“As an anchor institution, UConn has a responsibility to support the health and prosperity of the communities we serve,” Maric said. “Our faculty, students, and partners are working every day to build a more equitable Connecticut through research, education, and service provision— and Health Equity Week is a powerful reminder of what we can achieve together.”

A Call to Action
For HDI Director Dr. Linda Sprague Martinez, Health Equity Week is a call to collective action — and a reminder that equity is not inevitable.

“Health equity requires participation, partnership, and a willingness to challenge the systems that shape our lives,” she said. “Whether you’re a student, a policymaker, a clinician, or a resident, you have a role to play. The question is not whether you care about equity — it’s whether you will show up for equity and make your voice heard.”

Graduate students Trishan Kundu (BAPM) and Vitosavero Avila Wibisono (FinTech) took home the top prize and a $2,500 award on Tuesday at the event in New York City. The competition was judged by insurance leaders, investors and practitioners.

The prompt asked students what emerging risk or industry trend could be addressed through insurtech innovation to positively impact the insurance industry. Teams were asked to propose a new concept or an existing solution applied in a novel way. They were evaluated based on their data, innovation, creativity, and quality of presentation.

“The ‘secret sauce’ behind our win was our ability to clearly connect our solution to real-world scenarios,’’ Wibisono said. “We focused on addressing a key ‘pain point,’ detecting AI-generated content used as evidence in insurance claims, and proposed a practical solution to tackle it. We also made sure to explain how our approach could be integrated into existing workflows, showing a complete end-to-end pipeline from detection to implementation. I think this clarity and practicality really helped our solution stand out.’’

Kundu attributes the team’s win to their ability to bridge the gap between AI and real business impact. “We didn’t just build a model, we designed a solution that insurers can realistically adopt and scale,’’ he said.

Applying Classroom Lessons to ‘The Real World’

“Experiences like this are exactly what we strive to create for our students—a chance to take what they’ve learned in the classroom, step into a real-world challenge, and show the world what UConn talent looks like,’’ said Laurissa Berk, director of Global and Experiential Education at the School of Business. “This team came in with a phenomenal, industry-informed idea, and they absolutely delivered.’’

In order to get to the competition, Wibisono and Kundu had to compete against four other UConn teams to earn their trip to New York. Once there, they competed against students from the University of Iowa, St. John’s University and Columbia University. The goal of the competition is to engage the next generation of insurance professionals.

“What stood out about this team was the feeling that the product was easily relatable and the solution understandable,’’ said professor John Wilson, who mentored the students with professor Anna Radziwillowicz. “The team was required to revamp their deck to make it a professional-sounding pitch and they were clearly successful in doing so.’’

Second Consecutive Victory for UConn

Kundu said the experience will be beneficial in his career.

“This experience reinforced how critical it is to translate technical innovation into practical, industry-ready solutions, which will strongly shape my career in AI and data-driven decision making,’’ he said.

“Looking ahead, I believe it will help me develop and sharpen my skills, especially if I pursue a path in the insurance industry,’’ Wibisono said. “It can also help me gain recognition and build confidence when applying for roles in this field.’’

This is the second consecutive year that a UConn team took home the top prize. Last year, during the inaugural year of the competition, MSBAPM students Elia Cocoli and Rehaan Ahamed also earned the top prize.

For UConn’s College of Agriculture, Health and Natural Resources (CAHNR), Ag Day is both a celebration and a reflection of its year-round commitment to advancing agriculture across Connecticut through extension engagement, education, and research. As the state’s land-grant college, CAHNR plays a central role in supporting agricultural innovation, preparing the next generation of leaders, and connecting science to practice in communities statewide.

This year, CAHNR was well represented at the Capitol. UConn Extension, which led organization for CAHNR groups and is a key part of UConn’s land-grant mission, brought the College’s commitment to life at the event. Extension professionals representing aquaculture, livestock, soil health, farm-to-school programs, greenhouse and fruit production, poultry, and diagnostic testing shared the latest resources and expertise available to producers and communities. A soil health demonstration illustrated how healthy soils absorb increased water flow during extreme rainfall events compared to compacted soils, helping attendees see firsthand the value of soil stewardship. The Connecticut Sea Grant Extension team brought tanks and shellfish to introduce visitors to the thriving underwater agriculture in Long Island Sound through hands-on displays and conversations with aquaculture experts.

CAHNR’s Office of Academic Programs also engaged with prospective students and families, sharing information about the College’s degree programs and the wide range of career pathways in agriculture, environmental science, and food systems. Their presence highlighted CAHNR’s commitment to student success and workforce development at a time when interest in agricultural careers continues to grow.

CAHNR’s research enterprise was reflected throughout the exhibits and conversations at Ag Day. Faculty and staff contribute to advancing agricultural resilience, supporting farm viability, and strengthening food systems through science-based solutions. Recent analyses underscore the importance of agriculture to Connecticut’s economy, while ongoing research helps producers adapt to challenges such as climate variability, emerging pests and diseases, and evolving market demands.

Interim Dean Kumar Venkitanarayanan also attended the event, reinforcing the College’s leadership in Connecticut agriculture. During the Governor’s remarks, youth attendees, including members of the Future Farmers of America, were encouraged to consider pursuing their education at CAHNR, recognizing the College’s strength and momentum in preparing students for impactful careers in the agricultural and natural resource sectors.

“At CAHNR, our work reflects a simple idea that has guided since our founding in 1881: by supporter a stronger Connecticut, we are creating stronger communities,” says Venkitanarayanan. “When we support agriculture, we support the vitality of our towns, the health of our environment, and the strength of our agricultural producers.”

UConn 4-H Day at the Capitol, held in conjunction with Ag Day, further emphasized CAHNR and UConn Extension’s role in developing future leaders. Youth participants engaged with elected officials, learned about the legislative process, and explored career pathways across agriculture and related industries, building connections between education, civic engagement, and workforce development.

Beyond the Capitol, CAHNR’s impact is sustained through year-round programming, research, and partnerships. UConn Extension works with farmers, residents, and communities in every county to address critical challenges, from extreme weather preparedness to business planning and best management practices. Educational programs, field days, and conferences connect producers with the latest research and foster peer learning across sectors, including fruit and vegetable production, livestock operations, and turfgrass management.

Local agriculture remains central to food security in Connecticut, reducing reliance on supply chains from other regions. CAHNR supports these systems through integrated efforts that span research, Extension, and education. Initiatives such as farm-to-school programming, food safety training, and support for food entrepreneurs strengthen connections between producers and communities while building more resilient supply chains for the future.

Ag Day at the Capitol highlights the shared commitment among farmers, educators, researchers, and policymakers to ensure agriculture continues to thrive in Connecticut. For CAHNR, it is an opportunity to demonstrate how its work across disciplines and communities contributes to a strong, sustainable agricultural system that supports the state’s economy, environment, and future generations.

Follow UConn CAHNR on social media

“I found out the day of my grandmother’s funeral,” she recalls. “It was very bittersweet.”

At 34, Garfield entered her first pregnancy expecting a typical journey: routine appointments, growing excitement, and the milestones so often portrayed as joyful and seamless. Instead, her experience would become a powerful reminder that not all pregnancies follow a predictable path, and that early detection and expert care can make all the difference.

Because of her medical history and family background, Andrea was referred for additional monitoring at UConn Health where she underwent advanced imaging and testing with the maternal-fetal medicine team. Around 20 weeks, during a routine anatomy ultrasound, clinicians identified a rare and potentially life-threatening condition known as vasa previa, a diagnosis Garfield had never heard of before.

“I didn’t know what it was,” she says. “Then I looked it up, and it was terrifying.”

Dr. Andrea Shields, a maternal fetal medicine expert at UConn Health, explains that vasa previa occurs when fetal blood vessels run unprotected across or near the cervix.

“If those vessels rupture, the fetus can lose blood very quickly,” she says. “In those cases, the mortality rate can be as high as 50%.”

The condition is rare, occurring in approximately 1 in 2,500 pregnancies, and often goes undetected without careful ultrasound evaluation. In Andrea’s case, it was identified early, something Shields says was critical.

“Years ago, we might not have caught this,” she says. “Now, with routine anatomy scans, we’re able to identify these risks and manage them. That early diagnosis changes outcomes.”

Garfield’s pregnancy quickly shifted into a high-risk category, requiring close monitoring and a carefully coordinated care plan. By 30 weeks, she was admitted to the hospital to ensure immediate intervention if complications arose. The reason was simple but urgent: if labor began naturally or her water broke, the exposed vessels could rupture, leaving only minutes to save her baby.

“It felt like a ticking time bomb,” Garfield says. “If something happened, they would only have minutes.”

Behind the scenes, her care required a highly coordinated, multidisciplinary effort. Specialists in maternal-fetal medicine, obstetrics, anesthesiology, neonatology, nursing, and surgical teams worked in close collaboration planning for every possible scenario and meeting regularly to adjust her care as her pregnancy progressed. From advanced imaging and vessel mapping to continuous fetal monitoring and delivery planning, each step reflected a level of coordination designed to anticipate risk and act quickly when needed.

“That kind of teamwork is essential in cases like this,” Shields says. “It takes a coordinated, multidisciplinary approach to safely manage both the mother and the baby, especially when you’re dealing with something this rare and high-risk.”

The physical demands of pregnancy were matched by the emotional toll of prolonged hospitalization. Weeks in the hospital meant isolation, uncertainty, and letting go of expectations she once had. “I didn’t have a baby shower. I didn’t have that typical experience,” she says. “Not all pregnancies are perfect and we don’t talk about that enough.”

The plan was to deliver her baby via scheduled cesarean section at 35 weeks. But at 32 weeks, during routine monitoring, her baby’s heart rate dropped suddenly and significantly. Within moments, the plan changed.

“They told me, ‘She’s coming now,’” Garfield says.

What followed was an extraordinarily complex delivery. Garfield’s case was even more unusual than typical vasa previa, involving multiple exposed vessels that made surgical entry particularly challenging. To prepare, Shields and the care team had performed detailed vessel mapping to determine the safest way to deliver the baby without disrupting any of the fragile blood vessels.

In a rare turn of events, Garfield’s baby was delivered “en caul,” still inside the intact amniotic sac, an occurrence more commonly seen in extremely premature births. “That actually helped us,” Shields explains. “We were able to see the vessels clearly and open the sac safely, avoiding any rupture.” The approach allowed the team to carefully navigate the complex anatomy and deliver the baby without catastrophic bleeding.

On December 22, 2025, Garfield’s daughter, Gracie Claire, was born. Her middle name honors Garfield’s grandmother, tying together the day her story began with the day her daughter entered the world.

Gracie spent her first month in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), another chapter Garfield says few people truly understand until they experience it themselves. “No one prepares you for leaving the hospital without your baby,” she says. “You go home, and they stay behind.”

Each day meant returning to the hospital, balancing hope with uncertainty, and answering difficult questions from well-meaning friends and family. “People ask when your baby is coming home, and you just don’t know,” she says. “That’s really hard.”

Today, Gracie is thriving. Though she continues to be treated for hip dysplasia related to her early birth, she is gaining weight and growing stronger every day. For Garfield, recovery has included not only physical healing but also processing the emotional weight of the experience.

“There was definitely some depression,” she says. “It was a lot.”

Shields notes that Garfield’s experience reflects a broader reality for many patients facing high-risk pregnancies. “These situations can be traumatic,” she says. “There can be anxiety, depression, even post-traumatic stress. That’s why support systems both medical and personal are so important.”

Garfield hopes her story will encourage other women to prioritize prenatal care and to understand that pregnancy does not always unfold as expected. “Go to your appointments. Get the testing if you can,” she says. “It might save your baby’s life.”

For Shields, that message is central to modern maternal-fetal medicine. “Ultrasound is not just about seeing your baby,” she says. “It’s a medical exam that allows us to identify risks early and change the course of care. In cases like Garfield’s, it can be lifesaving.”

Garfield’s journey was not the one she envisioned, marked by uncertainty, fear, and resilience. But because of early detection, advanced imaging, and coordinated care at UConn Health, it is also a story of survival and of a little girl who arrived against the odds.

“It was the hardest thing I’ve ever gone through,” Garfield says. “But she’s here and that’s everything.”

Xu’s research focuses on a simple, but challenging, fact, which is that not everything in engineering is perfectly uniform. Many real-world materials contain a mix of order and randomness, a concept known as stochasticity. Rather than designing around that uncertainty, Xu has developed new computational tools that allow engineers to use it intentionally, and combine it seamlessly with ordered materials. 

“Traditional engineering tries to eliminate randomness as much as possible,” says Xu, who is the project’s PI and a professor within the School of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Manufacturing Engineering. “Our work asks a different question: what if we can design with it? What if controlled randomness actually leads to better performance?” 

At the core of the project is a novel computational framework that bridges predictable structures with stochastic ones, enabling engineers to create materials and systems with tailored properties. Using advanced generative artificial intelligence techniques, Xu and his team built a unified “design space” that allows them and future researchers to explore putting together both fully ordered and partially random configurations, something that was previously difficult to achieve. 

Xu’s research also takes inspiration from natural materials, which often have randomized but sturdy architectures, like the cells of tree leaves, the wings of dragonflies, or the gills of a mushroom.

The implications span a wide range of industries. Xu points to applications in batteries and energy storage, where optimizing material structure can improve battery performance, as well as in automotive design, where lightweight yet durable materials are critical. 

“These tools give us a new level of control,” Xu says. “We can design systems that are not only high-performing, but also more robust and reliable under real-world uncertainty.” 

That real-world relevance has driven collaborations beyond the lab, including partnerships with leaders such as Ford Motor Company and the U.S. Army. The research also connects to broader systems like power grids and transportation networks, where managing variability is key to long-term resilience. 

Xu is currently in the fourth year of this five-year project, and the findings and collaborations have already been lucrative. 

Since the 2022 NSF CAREER grant was awarded, the project has generated significant scholarly output, including 16 journal papers, four full-length refereed conference papers, and seven invited seminar/keynote talks.  

Xu’s work has been published in journals with high impact factors (IF) like Advanced Energy Materials (IF: 26), Energy & Environmental Science (IF: 31), Journal of Manufacturing Systems (IF: 14.2), Reliability Engineering & System Safety (IF: 11), and Small (IF: 12.1), among others. 

But for Xu, the most meaningful outcomes extend beyond publications. 

Students involved in the research have earned national recognition, including multiple honors from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, alongside strong career placements in academia and industry.  

Zihan Wang received the prestigious ASME Design Automation Dissertation Award and first place in the ASME CIE Hackathon, and is now a postdoctoral researcher at Northwestern University. Leidong Xu, also a CIE Hackathon winner and recognized for research presentations and publications, will join Ford. Majid Kheybari earned distinction as an editor’s pick in AIP Advances and has begun his academic career as an assistant professor at Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota.  

Current doctoral students continue to build on that momentum: Kiarash Naghavi Khanghah has earned both a best paper award and a hackathon win through ASME, while Zhengkun Feng has received competitive fellowships supporting his research. At the master’s level, Filip Penda is now an engineer at Newport News Shipbuilding, and William Hobson-Rhoades is pursuing a doctorate at University of Michigan.  

Together, these outcomes reflect the project’s strong emphasis on student development and its impact in preparing engineering leaders. 

Future research might involve more connections to cognitive science. 

Xu has also emphasized connecting research to the broader community. Through outreach efforts, the project has introduced K–12 students and teachers to hands-on STEAM learning, while also sharing new design tools with small businesses and manufacturers across Connecticut. 

“By working with educators and industry partners, we can help translate these ideas into real economic and societal impact,” Xu says. 

As engineering systems grow more complex, Xu believes that embracing (not avoiding) uncertainty will be essential. 

“Stochasticity is everywhere,” he says. “The challenge is learning how to work with it in a systematic way. This project shows that when we do, we can unlock entirely new possibilities for materials design.” 

The research conducted by Xu and his team was made possible through the NSF Division of Civil, Mechanical, and Manufacturing Innovation, through the Engineering Design and Systems Engineering program.  

Cavaliere ’97 (CLAS), ’07 MS first made a name for himself as head physical therapist and assistant strength coach for the New York Mets during their 2006–2008 National League East Championship seasons, something that wouldn’t have transpired without his older sister and fellow alum Amy (Cavaliere) Falco ’96 (CAHNR).

“My track at UConn was originally pre-med,” he says, “but I saw what my sister was doing in PT, working with people that are athletic, and I thought that might be a little bit more appealing.”

These days, Cavaliere is best known as the founder of Athlean-X, a fitness brand with more than 14 million YouTube subscribers. Cavaliere stands out amid a vast sea of fitness influencers for his ability to integrate physical therapy principles into strength training — and to make athletic training accessible to a broad audience, particularly men and women who want to stay strong, athletic, and pain-free as they age.

Read on for more.

“I set out to help individuals,” she said. “But I also got a look at the policy side of medicine and how decisions made behind the scenes affect clinicians, patients, and entire systems.” 

This experience, along with a desire to “make a difference at a population level,” led her to explore advanced degrees. UConn, she discovered, provided the perfect blend of courses between the School of Social Work and School of Public Policy.

“[UConn] felt like a strategic place to be if you want to work in public service,” she said. “I could see how intertwined the two fields are and it made sense to study them together, especially with the internship opportunities and the range of career paths it opens up.”  

Now, Foley-Johnson is pursuing both a Master of Social Work (MSW) and a Master of Public Administration (MPA) through UConn’s School of Social Work and School of Public Policy. 

Separately, each program requires two years of study but pursuing them jointly allows students to complete requirements for both degrees in three years instead of four. 

“The public policy program highlights the processes of working in government, public service, and how to impact legal systems to change communities, whereas the social work program deepens my understanding of social constructs, the way systems; institutional and otherwise impact individuals, their lives, and the choices they make,” she says.

Typically, students in this joint degree program start with a majority of public policy classes in their first year, switch to a majority of social work classes in their second year, and then complete a combination of coursework in the third year, explains Catherine Guarino, director of academic affairs and director of undergraduate programs for the School of Public Policy, and Carlton Jones, director of the School of Social Work’s Office of Student and Academic Services.  

Foley-Johnson hit the ground running by taking Analysis of Social Welfare Policy for a deeper understanding of the history of social work in the U.S., while Public Finance and Budgeting and Introduction to Public Policy have strengthened her analytical and writing skills. And, through the School of Public Policy’s Internship and Professional Practice Program (IPP), Foley-Johnson is gaining hands-on experience with the Connecticut Department of Developmental Services, where she works on employment and day services, supportive housing, and technology initiatives for adults with intellectual disabilities. 

“This internship has really connected both social work and policy for me. I’ve seen the importance of having a ‘seat at the table’ to impact decisions,” Foley-Johnson says. 

In her first two semesters at UConn, she’s already found herself in rooms with Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont, state commissioners, agency leaders, and other policymakers shaping Connecticut’s future. She also attended the Campaign School for Social Workers in February, where she met multiple social workers from different states with different political views.

“I found it delightful to be able to pick their minds about their local political environments, how it impacts them as social workers, and how it may impact their choices in career fields,” she recalls. 

Next year, Foley-Johnson is hoping to begin a social work practicum placement in a housing agency with the state of federal government.

Any impact we make in that space affects everyone. That’s what motivates me, knowing I can contribute in a way that benefits my community and beyond. —MSW, MPA student Bridget Foley-Johnson 

“The skills I’ve learned in my social work program have been easily transferred into my policy practice skills,” she says. “I remember in one of the first public policy classes about the theory of management, a peer of mine questioned how people could practice interview skills. Social Work programs give you that opportunity, to practice having hard uncomfortable conversations; conversations that may be controversial. Hard conversations are the most important part of changing policy.”

Foley-Johnson expects to graduate with both degrees in May of 2027. After, she hopes to build a career in state or local government, focusing on preventative healthcare and harm reduction, particularly for adolescents facing mental health and substance use challenges. She’s also considering a career as a policy analyst, program coordinator, project manager, state representative, nonprofit leader, political advocate, lobbyist, human resource management, legislative aide, government relations specialist, or research analyst.

“With these degrees, these are all possible career paths, with the shared emphasis on service roles,” she says. “Any impact we make in that space affects everyone. That’s what motivates me, knowing I can contribute in a way that benefits my community and beyond.”

UConn is recognized across the country for its research in gifted education. It is, quite literally, home to the National Center for Research on Gifted Education, as well as the Renzulli Center for Creativity, Gifted Education, and Talent Development. And the latter’s namesake, Joseph Renzulli, is one of the world’s foremost experts in the field. His three-ring model of giftedness has become foundational for gifted education at all levels. 

What better way to design a curriculum for Honors education at UConn than to implement findings from research conducted right here at UConn? 

Thus, the UConn Honors Program was (re)born. 

“It was really about wanting to build something different, to make Honors education at UConn a signature feature – to bring in elements that were research-based, that were intentional,” says Lease Butts. “Anybody can require a thesis. But if you don’t know why you’re requiring a thesis, then it’s just a paper.”

Lease Butts worked with then-Vice Provost for Academic Affairs Sally Reis (another nationally prominent gifted education researcher based at UConn, who happens to be Renzulli’s research partner and wife) and Jaclyn Chancey ‘13 Ph.D., to form a committee in charge of revising the Honors curriculum. They worked to adapt the key findings from Renzulli’s and Reis’ research into meaningful experiences for college students. 

“When I joined UConn Honors in 2013 … we had ‘pillars’ that talked about what we did, but nothing talked about why,” says Chancey, who is now an Associate Director of the program. “I realized that those pillars, as well as the values expressed by our staff, aligned with the different Renzulli models. I proposed what eventually became the theoretical model” for the program.

Chancey was able to integrate findings from her own doctoral research conducted at UConn, which focused on supporting gifted college students, and built upon the foundational research of Renzulli and Reis. 

“The entire process — from having the initial idea, then working with the task force to create the new curriculum, and finally seeing the students engage with it and thrive — is without a doubt the most satisfying experience of my career,” Chancey says. “It was a fantastic team effort, and I’m very proud that we have, to the best of my knowledge, the only college or university program in the world explicitly based on these models.” 

Today, the UConn Honors curriculum boasts an evidence-based set of unique opportunities for students, organized under the three pillars of exploration, creativity, and leadership.  

It was a fantastic team effort, and I’m very proud that we have the only college or university program in the world explicitly based on these models.

Honors students can choose to pursue extra depth in their major, graduating with the distinction of Honors Scholar. Or, they can add on to this by taking additional Honors courses across a breadth of fields and pursuing extra co-curricular experiences, earning them the University Honors Laureate distinction. 

“UConn classes are plenty difficult already; with Honors classes, it’s really about going deeper,” says Lease Butts. 

Going Deep

Renzulli loves to tell the story of how he became interested in gifted education. Early in his career, he was working as an elementary school teacher and was asked by the district superintendent to start a Saturday program for students with IQs of above 130 (this used to be considered the “official” cutoff point for giftedness).

“I knew that I had a lot of students in my general science class who were just as interested and as talented in science as those high-IQ kids,” Renzulli says. “So I started sneaking these new kids into my Saturday program. And they did just as well – in many cases, better.” 

This strengthened his growing conviction that giftedness was something more dynamic – and expansive – than the way it was traditionally imagined. His subsequent research into this topic led him to develop the three-ring model of giftedness. Beyond thinking of giftedness as only linked to IQ (or above-average ability), Renzulli showed that it was also tied to task commitment and creativity. 

When Renzulli was able to get this research published – a tough sell, he says, since most journal editors at the time were staunch adherents to the 130-IQ cutoff point – it “just got legs.” Then it ran away on those legs. Today, it is the most widely cited article in the field. 

From there, Renzulli went on to develop the Enrichment Triad Model of gifted education, which is designed to encourage creative productivity. Beyond just getting good grades, creative productivity is what happens when students are excited and engaged, using their gifts to positively impact the world around them. 

The Enrichment Triad Model emphasizes three different types of enrichment activities for students: general exploratory activities (like a guest speaker in a classroom), group training activities in areas like creative and critical thinking skills, and investigation of real-world problems. It’s no coincidence that the UConn Honors curriculum also prioritizes all three. 

For example, a requirement for the University Honors Laureate track is called Academics in Action, an activity that combines a student’s academic knowledge and creativity to produce something that is shared with an authentic audience. Lease Butts champions Academics in Action for its multi-modality, allowing students to explore interdisciplinary interests without being constrained to their major field of study. 

“It’s common for us to have students who are interested in neuroscience, and then they’re also writing for the Long River Review,” she offers as an example. “Academics in Action really gives them a way to add in that additional element.”  

Another Renzulli model, Operation Houndstooth, is also foundational to the current structure of the Honors Program. Operation Houndstooth (so named for the interlocking geometric shapes in the houndstooth pattern) considers interlocking traits in gifted individuals that can encourage them to use their gifts for social good.  

“For example, we have an entire set of offerings around ‘Staying Whelmed,’ which are essentially about supporting our students as people and ensuring that they have the tools they need for creative productivity,” says Chancey. “We also do a lot around community, leadership, and service that connect to Houndstooth’s goals of creative productivity towards the common good.” 

Finding Sparks

Another staple of the Honors curriculum is co-curricular activities which enhance and support students’ learning. From lecture series to film screenings to community-building events, the Honors calendar stays packed with opportunities. 

This, too, is based on research. Reis has found that creative productivity and engagement are often sparked by experiences like this. 

“If you study adult gifted individuals who have gone on to make big and important intellectual or creative contributions, it almost always goes back to an experience that inspired and engaged them – a field trip, a project, a lecture they attended,” says Reis.  

There’s no telling what will spark someone’s interest or alter the course of their lives. So the Honors Program provides as many opportunities as possible for students to have these moments – whether related to their major area of interest or something completely unexpected.  

For Reis, these experiences are all about instilling the values of creative productivity in students, setting them up for lifelong learning and success. She emphasizes that they help students think about education beyond just the typical classroom environment, equally championing creative problem-solving and expression. 

“We hope to increase the reservoir of highly creative and productive people in all areas,” Reis says. “We want more creative students, in all majors, who think about solving important problems.” 

Proof Positive

During the 2016 refresh of the Honors Program, Lease Butts not only wanted to make the curriculum “more responsive, and more reflective of new thinking on what an Honors curriculum can and should be” – she also wanted to expand the program’s reach. 

“If you want an Honors education at UConn, it’s our job to make sure you have one,” Lease Butts says. “That’s been very, very important to me – that no matter what campus your feet are on, you can get an Honors education if you want one.” 

Her efforts have paid off. Currently, there are over 2,400 students enrolled in the Honors Program across 77 majors, at all UConn campuses offering undergraduate degrees. Since 2002, the number of Honors students at UConn has more than doubled.

Additionally, a third of incoming Honors first-years in 2023 were first-generation college students, reflecting Renzulli’s principle of purposely opening gifted education opportunities to people who have been historically excluded from them. 

The program is ranked in the top 10 nationally, and its alumni have gone on to achieve prominence in many fields.  

“At UConn, the Honors program has brought me closer to like-minded people who are driven to succeed in all ventures creative,” says Alex Renzulli, a first-year student in Honors and the Department of Digital Media & Design, who is the grandson of Sally Reis and Joe Renzulli. “In the program, I’ve found friends, peers, and mentors who shape my time by collaborating on projects and activities. My collective of wonderful people has created an experience built upon teamwork and, simply, fun.”

“The Honors Program is so much more than the coursework that goes into Honors Scholar or University Honors Laureate – it’s about the structured opportunities to explore your passions and interests,” says Christian Chlebowski ’24, ’24 MSA, who graduated with two bachelor’s and master’s degrees simultaneously. “As an Honors Guide for Peer Success, it was always a joy to walk down Fairfield Way after the Honors Program Welcome during Week of Welcome and recognize and strike up conversations with first-year Honors students. Oftentimes, those conversations were the first of many chats I had with peers about coursework, life at UConn, and dreams for life after UConn. That’s what the Honors Program provides – an opportunity for connection, growth, and discovery.”

Since graduating from UConn, Chlebowski has held an internship in finance for the Walt Disney Company and worked for the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB). He’s now working as a senior associate at the accounting firm KPMG.

“So many of my post-UConn experiences tie back to skills I developed and refined in the Honors Program,” Chlebowski says. “It’s because Honors challenges students to think inter- and multi- disciplinarily, and challenges students to push themselves in general (while staying ‘whelmed,’ of course!), that it sets students up for success beyond Storrs.”

Whether buying a new couch, planning a vacation, or deciding what movie to see, those choices can become surprisingly complicated when another person is involved in the decision.

“What’s really interesting about this work is that it focuses on how people make decisions through spoken language. What you say when making a consumer decision can affect how you feel not only about your choice, but also about your relationship and your partner,” Brick says.

Brick’s work appears in the Journal of Marketing Research. She co-authored the research with professors Kelley Wight at Indiana University, Holly Howe at HEC Montreal, and Gavan Fitzsimons at Duke University.

Researchers Studied Shoppers in Store and Online

The research focuses on a common but often overlooked part of everyday life: the nuances of conversations people have with partners, family members, or friends as they work toward a shared choice.

To conduct their research, Brick and her colleagues analyzed nearly 200 joint decision conversations across married couples, friends, parents and children and siblings as they shopped for everything from flooring to windows.

The shoppers allowed them to listen to and record their conversations, providing the fodder for the research. In the in-store study context, participants used their own money to make or not make a purchase. In the online study context, participants were given a gift card to make a purchase. This allowed the researchers to observe conversations that both did and did not result in a purchase.

Brick and her colleagues identified four primary communication patterns that serve as the building blocks of those interactions. They are:

• Coordination: when people try to align their decision by asking questions, clarifying preferences, or sharing information;
• Contrast: occurs when one person introduces a different perspective or alternative, often with phrases like “but” or “what about?”
• Build: is a collaborative pattern in which one person affirms and expands on the other’s idea — a kind of “yes, and” communication.
• One-sided: when one of the participants response with “whatever you want’’ or a brief “OK.’’

Decision-Making Doesn’t Follow a Straight Path

Brick and her co-authors found that these patterns of persuasion are not equally effective in resolving a decision. For example, ‘Build communication’ was associated with more positive satisfaction outcomes for both the relationship and the choice itself.

By contrast, persuasion-oriented exchanges and some forms of coordination were associated with less positive satisfaction outcomes.

“Trying to ‘win’ the choice could come at a cost,’’ she says. “Instead, you should focus on expanding each other’s ideas as this tends to be more beneficial.’’

The findings also challenge the idea that shared decision-making follows a tidy, linear sequence from recognizing a need to making a final choice. Instead, the research suggests that people often move back and forth across stages of the decision process, revisiting preferences, evaluating options again, and reframing what matters as the conversation unfolds.

Research May Benefit Retailers, Friendships

That discovery has practical implications for marketers, managers, and friendships.

By recognizing the communication patterns that emerge, businesses may be able to better understand where consumers are in the decision process and encourage more productive interaction. The research suggests that nudging decision partners toward more collaborative communication — especially building on one another’s ideas — may improve the customer experience and lead to greater satisfaction with the final decision.

The research fits squarely within Brick’s broader research agenda, which focuses on consumer relationships, consumer well-being, and shared decision-making. This new study extends that work by showing that many consumer decisions are shaped not only by what people prefer, but by how they talk through those preferences together.

For consumers, the research offers a simple but useful takeaway: when making a decision with someone else, how the conversation unfolds may matter just as much as the options that are available.

ARE is an applied economics department. This means that students learn both the foundational skills offered by an economics degree, as well as the opportunity to apply that learning to the pressing problems businesses and society face today.

The ARE program consists of two majors: environmental and natural resource economics and economics of sustainable development and management. The department also offers an accelerated degree option allowing students to complete both their bachelor’s and master’s degree in five years.

“All of these degree options are very applied, which distinguishes us,” says Emma Bojinova, associate professor in residence and director of undergraduate studies for ARE. “Throughout our curriculum, we have lots of active learning. Students will not just learn the tools, the theory, the principles, the concepts, but they’ll apply them to real problems.”

The ARE program offers both larger introductory-level courses, open to students throughout the University, as well as smaller upper-level courses. The majority, 90%, of ARE courses are taught by faculty.

In “Market Planning and Survey Research in the Food Industry” (ARE 4205) taught by Cristina Connolly, assistant professor, students collaborate with local agribusinesses. They develop a business plan to address the clients’ goals and concerns, and they then present it to the actual clients at the end of the semester. The businesses often directly implement these suggestions.

“As a land-grant university, we have a mission to support our community, and I like that it goes both ways with our educational opportunities for students,” Connolly says.

One business that participated in the course was Ledge Stone Orchard, formerly West Green Farm, in Lebanon. The students not only helped them develop a comprehensive marketing plan – they also suggested a new logo that the business is now using.

Jacob Timchak ’26 (CAHNR) was involved in the project.

“[The farmer] was really grateful and happy that we were interested and involved,” Timchak says. “That was really rewarding to see and hear, because in college classes, a lot of what we learn can seem very far away from the real world. It was nice to have an assignment where we worked to help a real person with a real business.”

Courses like this help students understand how the skills they learn in other classes function in the real world, preparing them for the job market.

“The biggest goal is to provide students with the analytical tools [they need] in order to address actual problems, debate solutions, and devise potential interventions,” Connolly says. “It’s really about providing them with that tool kit.”

This semester Brian LaFauci, adjunct instructor, launched a new course, “Sustainable Business Planning” (ARE 4215). The course teaches students how to turn an idea into a practical, fundable business plan. The most promising projects will be eligible for seed funding provided by Farm Credit East. The course focuses not only on economic sustainability, but specifically crafting business plans that protect the environment.

“With the classes available in the department, you can have this really nice bandwidth,” LaFauci says. “Students come out of [this program] with experience in the basics of economics, in the basics of business, and in whatever other discipline they’re in, and that makes them very nimble.”

LaFauci’s company, Won Strategy, received the Providence Business News’ 2025 Diversity Equity & Inclusion Award for Education, which recognized the innovative nature of this course.

The ARE program also has a relationship with Farm Credit East, a regional financial cooperative that serves farmers, commercial fishermen, forest product producers and agribusinesses.

Through the one-credit Farm Credit fellows seminar, students support the evaluation of grant applications and conduct site visits to farms.

The ARE program offers nine classes that incorporate data analysis using real data. In one course, “Price Analysis and Futures Trading” (ARE 3225), students use a simulation to buy and sell commodities like oil.

“As an economist, it’s almost impossible not to work with data when you start a job,” Bojinova says. “Our goal is to prepare students so that when they go on the job they can start working with data, they can analyze, they can critically think, and even be a little bit more creative.”

ARE offers summer opportunities as well. Faculty members including LaFauci have involved students in projects such as gathering and organizing financial resources available to farmers in the region.

Outside the classroom, several students in the ARE program, including Timchak, have been involved in the Food Distribution Research Society (FDRS) Student Food Marketing Challenge. UConn has taken home two wins so far.

“It definitely gives me a leg-up [in the job market],” Timchak says, “I have this long experience in a competitive setting where I’m doing well because I have excellent advising and excellent support.”

Follow UConn CAHNR on social media

Rahul Kanadia, an associate professor in the Physiology and Neurobiology (PNB) department, demonstrates a prime example of taking a seemingly simple scientific concept and turning it into a research focus, not only for himself, but for his graduate and undergraduate students. His research program for undergraduates, Learning by Experiencing and Applying Principles (LEAP), revolves around this idea. 

Taking a LEAP

The LEAP program takes a fundamental concept of genetics and breaks it down for first- and second-year students over the course of three semesters. With a combination of theory, research paper writing, and benchwork, the LEAP program provides a stepping stone for early undergraduate students to experience research in a low-pressure environment.  

As a former LEAP student myself, I remember coming into my first lecture and being asked the question, “What is a gene?” Naturally, I brushed it off because this was something I learned in middle school – how could we not know this by now? Yet, a simple concept that could take five minutes to explain somehow turned into a two-day lecture and the basis for the entire program. After hours of pulling apart the original definition of a gene that we had been taught, we came up with a completely different answer to the question. As an aspiring scientist, that was the first lesson I learned from Kanadia: always question what’s in front of you.   

When Kanadia himself was an undergraduate student at Bethune-Cookman University in Florida, he was faced with a predicament in which he was asked to isolate ribosomal genes from spinach. 

“At the beginning of class, my professor dropped off two big boxes and said ‘Here is the kit, figure it out,’ and then he walked away,” says Kanadia. The structure of the class was confusing in the sense that it provided complete freedom and no instruction. Kanadia found this freedom exciting. That is essentially how research works, he says.  

Not everyone shared his love for the process: “There were twelve students in the class,” says Kanadia. “Just before midterms, the class was six people.”  

After multiple failed attempts, they were finally able to successfully isolate ribosomal genes from spinach from scratch. “The thrill is something you just cannot replicate,” Kanadia says. 

The benefit of having no protocol or instruction is that scientists learn to pull apart basic concepts and apply them to real research experiments themselves. This experience is what spurred Kanadia into the field of research and was a deciding factor for his journey into graduate school.  

His time in graduate school introduced him to RNA biology.   

“One of my professors for the semester core courses gave the most amazing lecture on RNA processing,” says Kanadia.

This realization encouraged him to pursue a position in Maurice S. Swanson’s lab at the University of Florida to study myotonic dystrophy (MD): a class of conditions caused by a genetic mutation that lead to muscle weakness, degeneration, and a lack of proper mRNAs that encode various protein products from the same gene. The genetic mutation occurs at the RNA processing level and causes a gene called Muscleblind to lose function.

Kanadia created a mouse knockout (where a specific gene for that particular mouse is inactivated) for the Muscleblind gene, which caused the mouse to develop symptoms observed in patients diagnosed with myotonic dystrophy. With this finding, he was able to support the role of Muscleblind in the pathology of myotonic dystrophy.  

Finding the root cause of the disease gave him the opportunity to also find the solution by overexpressing the Muscleblind gene and reversing its loss of function. This breakthrough positively impacts not only the research field, but also in clinical practice. Eventually, Kanadia was able to patent his research and aid in the therapeutic aspect of this disease.  

The Kanadia Lab

When it came to running his own lab at UConn, Kanadia recalled one of his favorite lectures on RNA biology and remembered a key concept: minor introns. In order for a gene to be expressed, first, it must be transcribed into an intermediate sequence called messenger RNA (mRNA). This mRNA strand can later be translated into a fully functional unit (e.g. a protein). However, during the process of transcription, where the DNA is transcribed into RNA, the mRNA strand includes sequences of both exons and introns. Exons are the strands of the sequence that are kept even after RNA processing and later translated into the fully functioning unit, while introns are removed during RNA processing in a process called splicing, conducted by a particular machinery within the cell called the spliceosome.  

Minor introns are a class of introns that make up less than 0.5% of all the introns in the body and utilize a completely different machinery for splicing called the minor spliceosome. (The rest of the introns are broadly classified as major introns.) Kanadia’s simple question was, “So for 1.8 billion years, we have kept separate machinery for minor introns, but we don’t know why?” This question opened up an entire branch of genetics yet to be uncovered.  

Once the foundational purpose of the lab was established, pieces started to fit together.  

“It was a very organic process.” Kanadia says. The lab began its 15-year journey by creating its first knockout mouse that stopped the expression of the minor spliceosome. From there, Kanadia’s graduate students were able to independently explore their areas of interest in relevance to the theme and build from there.  

Currently, the Kanadia lab explores the function of minor introns in the developing cortex in mice, limb development, cancer, primordial dwarfism and many more. From asking the question, “What is a gene?,” Kanadia was able to introduce his undergraduate students in LEAP to 15 years’ worth of critical research and an entirely new realm of genetics. This same question is also what continues to drive graduate research in Kanadia’s lab to this day.   

Minor introns may represent a small part of our genome, but their persistence for 1.8 billion years proves they are anything but insignificant. By observing such a small detail, Kanadia reminds us that science and research do not move forward by memorizing definitions, but by questioning them.  

The collaborative, national research study led by UConn School of Medicine researchers set out to find out if people with bronchiectasis and sinus disease are more likely to be infected with a type of bacteria called Pseudomonas aeruginosa. These bacteria are important because they make bronchiectasis more severe.

The study team reviewed the health information from more than 1,300 people with bronchiectasis in a large United States research registry. They compared people who had a history of chronic sinus disease with those who did not.

Using statistical analyses, they found that people with bronchiectasis and sinus disease were more likely to have their sputum (mucus coughed up from the lungs) infected with Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

According to the UConn led researchers, these results suggest that Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection may be one of the reasons people with bronchiectasis and chronic sinusitis have worse cases of bronchiectasis.

The study findings were published in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Diseases: Journal of the COPD Foundation.

The research team stresses that doctors should keep in mind the importance of sinus disease in people with bronchiectasis.

The lead author of the study from UConn’s medical school is current MD/Ph.D. graduate student Titas Grabauskas, who is also a predoctoral associate at The Jackson Laboratory, and study co-author is Dr. Mark Metersky from UConn School of Medicine.

Metersky has been the longtime director of the dedicated Center for Bronchiectasis Care at UConn Health. This fall the Center for Bronchiectasis Care at UConn Health joined the national Bronchiectasis and NTM Care Center Network that facilitates access to high-quality, specialized patient care for bronchiectasis and NTM lung disease. The Center is designated by the Bronchiectasis and NTM Association as a Bronchiectasis and NTM Care Center. There are 58 designated centers across the United States.

The webinar, part of CWCSEO’s ongoing AI Awareness Series, explored four key areas: educational innovation through AI tools, career pipeline development in AI fields, community-driven solutions and grassroots initiatives, and breaking systemic barriers to technology access. Throughout the event, speakers emphasized that AI is not just a technological issue, but a question of equity, power, and opportunity.

Among the featured panelists was UConn School of Medicine’s Dr. Linda Barry, professor of surgery and public health sciences, associate director of the UConn Health Disparities Institute (HDI), and associate dean of the Office of Multicultural and Community Affairs. Barry brought a health equity lens to the conversation, highlighting how AI can both mitigate and deepen disparities depending on how it is designed, governed, and deployed.

“AI has enormous potential to expand access to information, care, and opportunity—but only if we are intentional about equity from the start,” Barry noted during the discussion. “While I am not an engineer who codes, as an avid user and educator with lived and professional perspectives, I believe it is essential to be part of the conversation. When communities of color are excluded from the table, the tools that emerge often reproduce the very inequities they claim to solve.”

She underscored cultural humility as foundational to culturally responsive AI in education and health, noting the risks of biased data, opaque algorithms, and misaligned tools. Barry highlighted the importance of creating pathways for young people of color, particularly girls and underrepresented students, to pursue AI and technology careers while learning to use these tools responsibly. “If we want AI to work for our communities, our communities have to be in the room—as creators, decision-makers, and beneficiaries,” she said.

Dr. Barry’s ongoing partnership with CWCSEO

CWCSEO Executive Director Melvette Hill emphasized how central Barry’s leadership has been to the Commission’s broader efforts to advance equitable AI in Connecticut.

“Dr. Barry has been a steadfast partner in our work to make sure AI is developed and used in ways that honor the dignity, needs, and aspirations of communities of color,” Hill said. “She consistently brings community voice, health equity, and a deep understanding of structural racism into conversations that might otherwise stay purely technical. Her ongoing contributions help us move from awareness to action.”

Hill noted that Barry’s participation across multiple Commission initiatives has helped bridge the gap between policy, practice, and community experience especially at the intersections of health, education, and technology.

AI, equity, and the future of opportunity

Throughout the webinar, panelists discussed how AI is already shaping classroom experiences, hiring practices, and access to digital tools. They also highlighted community-driven strategies to ensure that AI supports, rather than undermines, educational equity and economic mobility.

For Barry, these conversations are inseparable from broader efforts to advance health equity.

“When we talk about the digital divide, we are also talking about a health divide, an opportunity divide, and a power divide,” she noted. “More substantive efforts are needed to definitively close the digital divide to ensure equitable access to all that AI has to offer. Access to technology, accurate information, and systems that are equitable and accountable is a determinant of health.”

A reflection on Dr. Barry’s impact

HDI Director Dr. Linda Sprague Martinez reflected on the significance of Barry’s role in this work.

“Dr. Barry’s contributions are invaluable to our collective efforts to advance health equity in Connecticut,” Sprague Martinez said. “She brings community engagement to the center of every conversation, whether it’s about AI, clinical care, or policy. Her leadership ensures that the people most affected by inequities are not only heard, but actively shaping the solutions.”

CWCSEO AI Webinar Series:

Chatbot Protections for Children and Older Adults
https://youtube.com/live/q-YEP4iOqqE?feature=share

Empowering Women in the AI Economy: Opportunity, Access & Small Business Support https://youtu.be/BP_tE-xMCCI

Bridging the Digital Divide – AI and Communities of Color: Exploring Education, Access & Cultural Equity
https://youtu.be/VVinRoD7hv4

Under Stevenson’s leadership, the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) has won major legal challenges eliminating excessive and unfair sentencing, exonerating innocent death‑row prisoners, confronting abuse of the incarcerated and the mentally ill, and aiding children prosecuted as adults.

UConn confers honorary degrees on individuals whose achievements reflect extraordinary and lasting distinction. The recognition represents the highest intellectual and moral values of the University and is reserved for those whose character and accomplishments exemplify UConn at its best.

“Bryan Stevenson’s advocacy has transformed lives, reshaped national conversations about fairness and human dignity, and inspired countless lawyers to use their education in service of others,” says Dean Eboni S. Nelson. “He embodies UConn Law’s deepest commitments, and we are privileged and excited to celebrate his remarkable achievements as our honorary degree recipient and commencement speaker.”

“I’m honored to join the inspiring graduates of UConn’s School of Law,” Stevenson says.  “The rule of law and the role of lawyers in creating more justice in the world is vital. I’m excited to be with outstanding law students as they enter the legal profession.”

Stevenson has argued and won multiple cases before the United States Supreme Court, including landmark rulings protecting people with dementia on death row and banning mandatory life‑without‑parole sentences for children. The EJI has won relief for more than 140 wrongly condemned death‑row prisoners and hundreds of others who were unjustly convicted or sentenced.

Stevenson has also advanced major national efforts to address poverty, discrimination, and the legacy of racial injustice. He led the creation of the EJI’s acclaimed Legacy Sites (the Legacy Museum, the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, and Freedom Monument Sculpture Park), which illuminate the history of slavery, lynching, segregation, and their connection to mass incarceration.

His work has been recognized with numerous honors, including the MacArthur “Genius” Grant, the ABA Medal, the National Humanities Medal, the Thurgood Marshall Award, and inclusion on the Time 100 and Fortune’s World’s Greatest Leaders lists. He has received more than 50 honorary degrees and is the author of the bestselling book “Just Mercy,” which inspired an award‑winning feature film and a documentary film. He is a graduate of Harvard Law School and the Harvard Kennedy School.

The UConn School of Law will hold its 103rd commencement on Sunday, May 17, 2026, at 10 a.m. on the law school campus. The Class of 2026 includes more than 230 graduates receiving JD, LLM, and SJD degrees. For more information, please visit our commencement page.

She doesn’t open with graphic designer or multimedia journalist and won’t even talk about the time she held in her hand an acceptance letter to medical school. Sure, her stint as a high school art teacher might come up, along with that year-long missionary trip to the Philippines.

But unless she’s prodded, the doctoral candidate who’s set to graduate in May, only mentions her past in relation to the present and to the future, as she reconciles the possibility, even opportunity, of yet another reinvention after defending her research this summer.

Duarte Armendáriz ’26 Ph.D. takes to heart her grandfather’s wisdom doled out whenever she and her 21 cousins – that’s just on her mother’s side – switched majors or pivoted professions: Take the lessons gained from each experience and transfer them to the next, never were they useless.

It’s why this semester as the graduate assistant for the UConn English department’s Creative Writing Program she delighted in using her graphic design skills to help create posters for Poetic Journeys.

And it’s why her dissertation looking at the intersection of children’s literature and translation studies is a natural fit.

Having grown up in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, just across the border from El Paso, Texas, Duarte Armendáriz straddled the line between languages, cultures, and national borders, just as the young characters in her picture books and young adult novels stride their own stories.

Author, translator, and dog mom, that’s what she is today, the order of which is situationally dependent.

Writing – Not Exclusive to Geniuses

“I cannot write creatively in Spanish, and that goes back to growing up on the border and having more access to entertainment in English. My creative language is in English,” Duarte Armendáriz says. “I have compartments for different activities in the language that I do them in – like my love language is in English, but my cutesy language is in Spanish.”

When she watched a colleague’s young child last spring, she admits needing a few days to find a natural play language to communicate with the 6-year-old. With her nieces and nephews, play happens in Spanish not English, the same as her childhood, and she had to adjust.

Duarte Armendáriz says her own childhood was filled with books, her mother a frequent visitor of the library in El Paso with daughter in tow, her grandfather forever inquiring what book she had a nose in, her extended family as subjects of news reports in a paper she started at 8 years old.

Her “first crush,” she says, was the detective Sherlock Holmes, it’s why she learned to play the violin.

Yet, she says she didn’t recognize writing as a potential career until she was nearly done with college. It was a profession for only geniuses she thought, until taking a creative writing class that focused on children’s literature.

One might say she had an ah-ha moment, so when applying for master’s programs she looked for one that would give her opportunity to bring to life the character that had been living in her head for some time.

Simmons University in Boston paired her with an editor from Lee and Low Books to – in a single semester – write the first draft of “Julieta and The Diamond Enigma.” Its sequel, “Julieta and The Cryptic Rose,” will be released Sept. 15.

Both chapter books, they tell the story of young Julieta, “who’s sort of a combination of Amelia Bedelia, Ramona Quimby, and Flavia de Luce,” she says, as the girl solves mysteries that involve her art handler father and art restorer mother.

“I didn’t know I was writing a mystery until my editor told me to put in more red herrings,” Duarte Armendáriz says. “I had this idea that it was just going to be an adventure story of a girl who would travel to a lot of places. That was the original nugget of the story, and it was more like a fantasy adjacent story in my head. But then it started evolving.”

Two deep revisions and four years later, “The Diamond Enigma” was published in June 2020. “The Cryptic Rose” has taken six years to produce, but in between a couple of pictures books have been in development, although not yet sold, and a Ph.D. program has been in progress.

“I’ve definitely incorporated stories from my own life and things that have happened to me,” Duarte Armendáriz says, giving as an example, “My first name is a hard one, people have always mispronounced it, so I knew that English readers would see ‘Julieta’ as ‘Juliette.’ In the first pages of the first book, she says that her name sounds like the hooting of an owl. That was a piece of my life that I was able to incorporate.”

Making a Story Accessible

Duarte Armendáriz once interned at the Massachusetts-based Charlesbridge Publishing, a stint during which she says she read through the “slush pile,” or unsolicited submissions that were sent to the publisher without an agent as a go-between.

A mound capped with too many my-grandkids-and-me stories and sing-song rhymes that didn’t quite hit the mark, she noted what worked and what didn’t – because most submissions don’t get a hardcover, let alone a soft one.

“Those stories, it’s not that they didn’t have value because they’re the experience of someone, but there’s still something in them that might not appeal to everyone,” Duarte Armendáriz says. “The key is trying to make a story accessible and find a new angle that hasn’t been done before, which is a hard thing.”

Almost equally as hard for an author is letting go of their story, the characters and the world they invested time into building.

Upon completion of a story, Duarte Armendáriz explains, the next person to see it outside of the editors is the illustrator, a person deliberately kept out of the process until that point, a stranger to the author to allow for them to conceive the visual elements from the text the author provided.

“It’s their interpretation of the world that I created,” she says. “And even though it might be scary for writers, I really appreciate it because, for example, the cover illustrator of ‘Julieta,’ Olivia Aserr, put a bandage on her knee. That says so much about who she is and her personality. I would never have thought about adding it if I had drawn Julieta.”

That one little detail made an impression, she notes, and could have changed the tone, meaning, and clarity of the story – something she, as a translator of children’s literature, also keeps foremost in mind with the copy before her.

Translations Give Ideas for Ideas

Translating text from Spanish to English, or any language into any language, is not a word-for-word practice. Duarte Armendáriz describes it as “sense for sense. You want to give the idea for the idea.”

A translator must answer many questions as they move through the process including whether to maintain the cultural references of a story or synthesize the ideas into something a foreign audience would understand. After all, an English-speaking audience may not understand the cultural nuances of a story originally written in Swedish for Swedes, she says as an example.

“When translating children’s literature, you also have to think about changes in time, because what was allowed 20 years ago might not be as palatable today,” Duarte Armendáriz says. “I created a ruckus in one of my translation classes, because in the beginning of a book I’m trying to translate, the mom is smoking a cigarette inside the house.

“It’s not crucial to the story, and I can change it to something else that will keep the essence of what the cigarette was doing, so it will be a little easier on contemporary American audiences,” she continues. “My professor was aghast, ‘How could you take away the cigarette?’ But I’m thinking about this as an industry. Who are the gatekeepers? The editors, the parents? Translation can be sense for sense, but you can also keep it foreign or make it domestic, depending on what the goal is.”

She also needs to know who the intended reader is because, she notes, Mexican Spanish is different than Castilian Spanish and Cuban Spanish and even Mexican American Spanish in the U.S. Indeed, “pelota,” “bola,” and “balón” all mean “ball” in Spanish, just not to everyone who speaks Spanish.

Only a small percentage of foreign texts are translated into English for U.S. audiences each year, whereas other countries are more inclined to adapt English texts to their tongue, Duarte Armendáriz explains. That’s not surprising, as translations are one way for a country without a literary culture to build one or enhance what’s produced domestically.

“It’s a way to get to know the world and have access to other experiences that otherwise you wouldn’t have,” she says of translated works, comparing them to Greek, Roman, or Asian art on display in a museum. “Books are just another representation of that art. It’s another way of understanding the people around us.”

Children Devour Every Word

Duarte Armendáriz has been learning origami lately and passes along a fluorescent pink frog. Her practice of the Japanese art of paper folding is in preparation for school visits this fall when “The Cryptic Rose” debuts.

Just how the frog fits in though, is about as cryptic as the meaning of the rose.

Usually, Duarte Armendáriz visits fourth and fifth grade classrooms, students who’ve built up to chapter books and have read all about Julieta. One Massachusetts school has designed a curriculum around the book.

Teachers there take the upper elementary school students to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston where they hunt for treasures, in search of their favorite piece. Later, back in the classroom, Duarte Armendáriz visits to help them sort through what they found and gives them a writing prompt: How would they smuggle that piece out of the museum?

Create a distraction. Tuck it in an updo. Dip it in … oh, Duarte Armendáriz says she might incorporate that one into a future book. It’s pretty clever.

“It’s reinvigorating to go into classrooms and see that people actually read what I wrote because it’s a few years from when I sat down to write until it’s in the hands of the audience,” she says. “And children pay attention to all the details. I have to reread very quickly before I go into a classroom, so I’m not saying, ‘I wrote that? I don’t remember writing that. It was just a plot point. I have no idea.’ They want a reason for everything.”

That’s much the same as what she as a young girl would have expected from writer and illustrator Leo Lionni, a childhood favorite, or from the Hardy Boys, maybe her second and third girl crushes.

“Letting yourself be silly is something that I always appreciated and still appreciate in children’s books,” she says. “With Julieta, I try to imbue that in her. I laugh sometimes when I’m writing because I think, ‘I would do that’ or ‘I wouldn’t do that, but I would want to do that,’ so I live vicariously through her. I really allow myself to play through writing, and that’s something that’s a through-line even in my own reading.”

This week President Radenka Maric and I, along with the UConn and UConn Health CFOs, the UConn vice president for student life and enrollment, and the government relations team, presented at the General Bonding Subcommittee of the state legislature. Just for background you often hear me talk about the “block grant,” funding UConn Health receives from the state, now about 8% of our budget (If you recall it was approximately $200M in FY 25, $143M in FY 26 and will be $138M in FY 27). These block grant funds represent operating dollars or funds we apply to operations such as paying salaries. What I refer to less often are the capital dollars we receive from a state bonding process that we use for deferred maintenance, construction, Information technology, some equipment, and so on.

The bonding process has various steps but the bonding subcommittee’s role is to prepare recommendations for what projects should receive bond authorization, how much bonding authority should be granted and any adjustments to prior authorizations. These recommendations are forwarded to the full Finance, Revenue and Bonding Committee for a vote.

In my testimony I informed the subcommittee that over the past 30 years, the UConn 2000 capital program (i.e. state bonding) has enabled major investments at UConn Health, including:

• A new hospital tower
• Renovations to John Dempsey Hospital and the clinic building
• Expansion of the Cell and Genome Sciences Building to support bioscience startups
• An addition to the academic building to accommodate larger medical and dental school classes

I thanked them and requested that the FY27 authorization (previously approved but not yet disbursed) be maintained.

Specifically we are requesting a total of $43 million comprising:

• $30 million for deferred maintenance to ensure our facilities remain safe, modern, and compliant with codes and accessibility standards.
• $13 million for clinical equipment and IT security, which supports:
  • replacement of aging equipment
  • protection of patient data
  • strengthening cybersecurity infrastructure and monitoring.

In case you are wondering, as you can see from the graphic below, we have approximately $500M in capital needs. From a definition standpoint, “Recurring Deferred Renewal” represents items at or past the end of normal useful life that have not been addressed, whereas “Recurring Projected Renewal” represents the items that are projected to be at the end of normal useful life within the next 10-year period. Finally “Nonrecurring Renewal” consists of modifications or repairs necessary to comply with fire/life safety etc. These are considered one-time projects. Sample projects are Stair Railing Replacements and elevator upgrades to meet accessibility requirements.

I also thanked the subcommittee for their support in authorizing the bonding for the UConn Health Waterbury partnership.

By the way, this week we also held the first regular UConn Health Community Network Board meeting to approve capital expenditures, and review growth plans.

Switching gears, this week I and the UConn Foundation also met with donors to discuss UConn Health’s exciting strategic initiative called the UConn Health AI Institute. The blueprint is still in the development stage, but we anticipate the AI Institute will include the following components:

• Centralized health care clinical, and operational Innovation
  The Institute will act as a strategic hub coordinating AI development, and commercial collaboration for rapid local and nationwide impact.
• Clinical and operational validation at UConn Health
  With appropriate governance and safeguards, UConn Health will validate suitable AI solutions for clinical, research, and operational application.
• Commercialization partnerships
  The AI institute will partner for the commercialization expertise necessary to prepare AI innovations for market and sustainability.
• AI venture activity
  If funding is available, the AI institute will likely have an AI Venture aspect which could be student-led, AI institute guided.

Talking about philanthropy, this week I also presented to the UConn Foundation at their Campaign Leadership Committee Meeting and highlighted the need for funding for a new Labor and Delivery facility.

Other priorities that we discussed are noted below:

There have been some significant achievements this week. First, I would like to congratulate Kevin Chamberlin, AVP and chief pharmacy officer, and his team for securing approval by the CT Commission of Pharmacy for the retail pharmacy that will open later this year within the walls of John Dempsey Hospital.

Thanks to those who submitted ideas, we’re calling it the Blue Oak Pharmacy. As Kevin tells us, “We look forward to provide retail pharmacy services to our staff and patients that will enhance our Meds to Beds service and allow for after-hours pickup via medication lockers. Stay tuned for more information on Blue Oak Pharmacy as we approach the anticipated opening in late fall 2026!”

I would also like to congratulate Dr Enrique Ballesteros, chair of our Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, and his team for securing ACGME accreditation for a pathology residency program. Congratulations as well to Dr Gahie Nam, pathology residency director, and Liz Barrientos, program coordinator, for all their efforts to get the new residency approved. I’d also like to acknowledge Dr. Steven Angus, assistant dean for graduate medical education, GME Director Martha Wilkie, Dean Bruce Liang, Dr. Kiki Nissen, senior associate dean for faculty affairs, and CFO Jeff Geoghegan for all their support for this new program.

As Dr. Ballesteros tells us, “This is an exciting new chapter for pathology at UConn Health that will support continued growth in diagnostic services, education, and scholarly activities. It will be a great privilege to educate the next generation of pathologists!”

Finally, speaking of accreditation, I am proud to learn this week that the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) has bestowed upon our medical school’s Office of Community and Continuing Medical Education its highest level of recognition. With the ACCME’s Accreditation with Commendation comes the longest accreditation term possible, six years. Please read more about this on UConn Today, and join me in congratulating Dr. Christine Thatcher, associate dean for medical education and assessment, and Dean Liang for their success in continuing to elevate the UConn School of Medicine.

Although we have made good progress we are not quite finished seeking fair rates from health insurance companies. I wanted to give you an update on our ongoing negotiations with Cigna. We have been working to secure a new agreement that reflects the real cost of delivering high-quality care to our patients. While we continue to negotiate in good faith, Cigna’s current proposal does not represent fair or sustainable terms.

If we are unable to reach an agreement by April 30, 2026, both UConn John Dempsey Hospital and the UConn Medical Group providers and facilities will become out-of-network for patients covered by Cigna. Behavioral health services, and all providers and facilities that are part of UConn Health Waterbury Hospital, UConn Health Waterbury Health at Home and UConn Health Community Network Medical Group are not affected and will remain in network. Fair and sustainable agreements with insurers are essential to ensuring we can continue providing high-quality care to our patients and communities.

We remain committed to the negotiation process and hopeful that we will reach an agreement before the deadline. Additional information is available at uconnhealth.org/cigna

As we grow our UConn Health Community Network, beginning with our Waterbury partnership, our IT team has a critical — and largely unseen — role in enabling seamless, connected care across our community partners, both present and future.

Monday IT held a leadership summit to reflect on our implementation of our electronic health record system Epic in 2018 and define where we are heading next, based on a forward-looking approach to scaling Epic and supporting future growth. We are building on our strong foundation of experience as we prepare to implement the UConn Health Community Connect program, a strategic extension of Epic that enhances EHR compatibility throughout our network. The vision is to share our Epic system with partner organizations and provide the IT services needed to build, run, and support Epic for them under a shared governance model.

I’d like to acknowledge Ingrid Napoletano, AVP for IT clinical systems, and our entire IT staff, under the leadership of CIO Rick McCarthy, for their work to ensure these transitions happen securely and effectively.

Here’s a letter from a patient in praise of Justin Krajcik, one of our phlebotomists:, I’d like to share:

Justin was the only employee in the lab the morning of a snowstorm. He drew everyone’s labs and was so pleasant when he came out to the waiting room. He also offered to take my type and screen to the main lab himself if the couriers were not available.

Thank you, Justin, for your excellent service and willingness to go above and beyond!

I’d like to close this week with a reminder that Monday, March 30, is Doctors’ Day — a day we take a moment to acknowledge and appreciate the dedication of our physicians, dentists, and researchers. My leadership team and I are grateful for your commitment to your patients, your students, and your science, not just today, but every day.

I invite you to watch this short Doctors’ Day video, which shows our impact on our state’s health care workforce, and join me in saying thank you to our physicians, dentists, and researchers:

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

While I understand this has been a heavy winter and our grounds team is working hard, the parking garages (especially Garage 1) often do not get cleared out and it is unsafe. The snow drifts inside the garage, in addition to the untreated ice is not only unsafe for staff who are walking in, but for patients being seen. I have personally slipped multiple times and have watched others slip as well. Is this something that is being looked at during the storms? It seems that it is often not being treated until days later, if at all. In addition to the unsafe walking conditions, cars are often going the wrong way down one-way areas and speeding past pedestrians who are walking in the building. Is this an area that our officers are monitoring or could be monitoring? Thank you for your attention to this safety matter.

Thank you for raising these concerns, which I’ve shared with our leaders in parking, grounds, and University Safety. Our grounds crew does remove snow drifts from garages; the volume of snow and prolonged below-freezing temperatures this winter presented extraordinary circumstances, causing this to take longer than normal.

As J.J. Odom, our building and grounds director, explains, the majority of our focus during and immediately after the storms was clearing the surface lots to ensure there was adequate space for parking. Additionally, the timing of the back-to-back storms created further challenges with keeping up with all areas simultaneously. It’s important to understand that the work continues long after last snowflake falls.

Our grounds crew takes a number of steps as a matter of routine to mitigate winter-related issues, and does an excellent job overcoming conditions to ensure parking areas are cleared, walkways are treated, potholes are patched, etc. It can be easy to take this for granted, and I’m glad for this question because it gives us an opportunity to reflect on the outstanding work this team does every day — even around the clock when needed. So I would like to take a moment to thank our grounds crew members for their outstanding efforts.

Regarding vehicle traffic in the garages, Chief Justin Gilbert reports his officers have been emphasizing enforcement of unsafe travel throughout campus and are paying attention to the garages as part of that.

Thank you again for your questions.

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

Hub Highlights

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Dr. Kristina Zdanys and Dr. Anthony Alessi discuss dementia on the latest “Healthy Rounds” podcast.

Preview our 2026 NCAA Tournament TV ad featuring Coach Geno.

Students, residents, postdocs shine at the UConn Musculoskeletal Institute’s 20th Research Day.

Learn how our Health Disparities Institute supported the third annual Black Family Wellness Expo in Hartford.

Congratulations to our medical school’s Office of Community and Continuing Medical Education for earning Accreditation with Commendation!

Meet Dr. Ashton Lemann, who recently joined our ear, nose and throat practice.

Plus, the latest School of Medicine e-newsletter is now available.

Visit The Hub

Note: Unlinked content is only available on The Hub, for which you must be on the UConn Health network to access.

The Deloitte Foundation Doctoral Fellowship awards are intended to help strengthen the pipeline of accounting faculty by supporting Ph.D. candidates who plan to pursue academic careers.

For 70 years, this program has awarded annual fellowships to 10 top accounting Ph.D. candidates from across the U.S., helping them cover expenses during their final year of coursework and subsequent year to complete their doctoral dissertation.

Doan said he is extremely grateful to receive the fellowship, and to be honored among a distinguished cohort of academics. His dissertation will address the impact of accounting firms’ investment in and adoption of artificial intelligence on auditors.

“Tuan stands out as one of the most impressive Ph.D. students I have worked with,’’ said professor Ying Zhou, co-chair of Doan’s dissertation committee. “He is naturally curious, highly disciplined, and remarkably proactive in pursuing new research ideas. He is also an excellent collaborator and presenter, and his initiative and enthusiasm position him well for a successful academic career.’’

Each year, accounting doctoral students from more than 100 universities are invited to apply for the fellowship. A selection committee composed of eminent accounting educators chose this year’s recipients, who were nominated by accounting faculty at their university. Since its inception, the program has supported nearly 1,200 Ph.D. candidates.

“The Deloitte Foundation helps prepare students for the future of work. A strong pipeline of faculty can help shape a future workforce that is prepared for career success,’’ said Erin Scanlon, Deloitte Foundation president. “Doctoral study can be demanding, especially at the point where candidates are completing advanced coursework and pushing their dissertation across the finish line. This fellowship program is designed to help Fellows maintain momentum through that critical transition.’’

Doan received his bachelor’s degree in accounting at the Vietnam University of Commerce. He then earned a Fulbright Foreign Student Scholarship, which enabled him to pursue a master of science in accounting from Michigan State University.

He came to UConn in 2022 as a Ph.D. candidate. He credits his UConn professors for being patient and giving him freedom to explore new ideas. “There is so much good momentum here,’’ he said.

“Tuan is smart, hardworking, and motivated,’’ said professor David Weber, the second chair of Doan’s dissertation committee. “He also has a warm personality and is always willing to help others. He has an excellent career as a scholar and teacher ahead of him.’’

“We are so proud of Tuan and everything he has accomplished,’’ said Todd Kravet, academic director of the accounting Ph.D. program. “We are extremely grateful to the Deloitte Foundation for their support of aspiring Ph.D. students, who represent the next generation of leaders who can shape the future of our industry.”

The four are:

• Emmanouil Anagnostou, the Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the Eversource Energy Endowed Chair in Environmental Engineering.
• Diane Lillo-Martin, a Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor of Linguistics in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.
• Jeffrey McCutcheon, the General Electric Professor of Advanced Manufacturing in the Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering.
• Mark Adams, a professor and interim scientific director at The Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine and an affiliated faculty in the School of Medicine’s Department of Genetics and Genome Sciences.

Anagnostou is the founder and former director of the Eversource Energy Center and one of the applied research directors of the Connecticut Institute for Resilience and Climate Adaptation (CIRCA). Anagnostou’s research efforts focus on remote sensing of water cycle and integrating earth observations with models for improving water cycle predictability at global scale. He explores severe weather events and leveraging advanced technologies to predict the impact on communities and the natural and built environments. Anagnostou is the executive director of the UConn Tech Park and the Institute of Environment and Energy.

Lillo-Martin’s research examines how the human mind acquires spoken and sign languages, with a focus on language development in young children. She has been a member of the UConn faculty since 1986, has served multiple terms as head of the Department of Linguistics, and was named a Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor in 2009.

McCutcheon has pioneered work in membrane-based separations, notably in the areas of osmotic processes and membrane formation. He has served the separations community as a director of both the AIChE Separations Division the North American Membrane Society and was the deputy topic area lead for the National Alliance for Water Innovation, the Department of Energy’s “water hub” dedicated to supporting the development of desalination technology in the United States. He is currently the director of the Connecticut Center for Applied Separations Technology (CCAST), where his work focuses on membrane manufacturing and applications in the areas of liquid, gas, and ion separations.

Adams is also the interim scientific director for The Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine in Farmington, where he leads the clinical and research genomics services that provide access to next-generation sequencing platforms for Jackson researchers and genetic testing for patients in the context of cancer and rare diseases.

The latest class of AAAS Fellows includes nearly 500 scientists, engineers, and innovators who are being recognized for their scientifically and socially distinguished achievements. A tradition dating back to 1874, election as an AAAS fellow is a lifetime honor, and all fellows are expected to maintain the highest standards of professional ethics and scientific integrity.

The AAAS is one of the world’s largest general scientific societies and publisher of the journal Science, as well as Science Translational Medicine; Science Signaling; a digital, open-access journal, Science Advances; Science Immunology; and Science Robotics.

AAAS was founded in 1848 and includes more than 250 affiliated societies and academies of science, serving 10 million individuals. Science has the largest paid circulation of any peer-reviewed general science journal in the world. The nonprofit AAAS is open to all and fulfills its mission to “advance science and serve society” through initiatives in science policy, international programs, science education, public engagement, and more.

“There’s some British singer doing an interview on the floor below us,” his boss said. “You might as well film her.”

“I was thinking about the lunch I had to get after,” Hines recalls. “I hit record, and she starts singing, and it was unbelievably good! I was completely stunned.”

Two months later, Amy Winehouse was a global superstar. Hines went back to thinking about lunch.

Two decades later, not much has changed. Hines ’92 (CLAS) is still drifting into surreal moments and reacting with calm curiosity — case in point, crawling across the bathroom floor of a Hollywood improv theater with his friend and business partner Jim Woods, spoofing the horror film “The Substance.” After seeing the movie, they wondered what would happen if Hines took the drug at the story’s center. Weeks later, they were shooting their own short film.

“Yesterday, I shot a piece on ‘Jimmy Kimmel,’” Hines says. “I was a dentist in some sketch. They called me last minute. ‘Can you be here in an hour?’ That was my day. I canceled everything else.”

At 55, Hines has built something rare in comedy — a career based on adaptability. He’s a reliable character actor and one of improv’s most respected teachers, running what he half-jokingly calls Improv Grad School.

Hines can slip into the absurd with deadpan precision, whether playing a creepy landlord on “Broad City,” an icy district attorney on “Brooklyn Nine-Nine,” or a rich guy who hunts people on TBS’ “Lost” parody “Wrecked.”

The “Broad City” role was especially sweet. Hines had taught Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer at Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre (UCB) and introduced them to Amy Poehler. After Poehler became their champion and producer, “they cast me in their show, partly as a thank-you, I think.”

That role marked his first time on television and “the first of many creeps that I’ve gotten to play,” he says laughing. Why does he keep getting cast as the creep? “I’m a shy person, so when I’m at rest, I’ll stay very still and try not to betray any feelings out of what I think is politeness, but I think it comes across as, ‘What’s that weirdo thinking?’”

On “Brooklyn Nine-Nine,” Andy Samberg encouraged him to improvise and even directed him to “go smaller, completely dead.” He was right, Hines says. “It was funnier that way.”

His favorite project was “Wrecked,” where he spent 10 weeks in Fiji playing an alpha-bully loudmouth jerk who hunts people for sport. “The showrunners liked having us play against our appearances. I love playing villains,” Hines admits. “It’s no problem for me. I don’t know what that says about my personality, but I love being the bad guy.” The series never found a wide audience, but Hines remembers it fondly: “The cast and crew were so happy to be working that everyone had a great time.”

Read on for more.