UConn InCHIP Hosts 2026 Annual Meeting

UConn's Institute for Collaboration on Health, Intervention, and Policy (InCHIP) held its 2026 annual meeting on Thursday, October 29 at the J. Ray Ryan Building on the Storrs campus.

Principal investigators (PIs), UConn staff, and graduate students packed into Room 204 to celebrate a year of achievement and look ahead to 2027. The annual meeting offers a chance for informal networking and a celebration of the past year's achievements.

Tricia Leahey, InCHIP director and professor of allied health sciences, gave opening remarks.

"It was wonderful to see some new and familiar faces. The fantastic turnout demonstrates the strength of the InCHIP community and sense of connection we share. Despite the challenges of the past year, InCHIP researchers and staff have done a remarkable job navigating uncertainty while continuing to produce top-quality, high impact work," says Leahey.

She praised InCHIP PIs' adaptability and resilience through a year that was marked by persistent federal funding challenges. For example, there were disruptions to grant reviews and council meetings following a government shutdown in 2025. The delayed release of the NIH's 2026 budget also created interruptions.

In response, InCHIP strengthened support for its research community by investing in pilot research, holding networking events to develop new grant ideas, and providing investigators with space to discuss the federal funding changes and strategize how best to respond.

In FY 26, PIs secured about $12.3 million in total new awards. InCHIP PIs' active grant portfolio totals $101 million, and research expenditures are among the highest in InCHIP's history at $18.4M.

A key component of this growth is InCHIP's seed grants program, which funds innovative pilot work that will serve as the foundation for external grant proposals. For every $1 invested in InCHIP seed grants, more than $30 is recouped in external awards.

This year, InCHIP awarded $260,280 in seed grants. Funds went to projects that emerged from InCHIP's Poverty and Health Networking event held earlier this year in January and the Community-Engaged Research Forum in May.

Leahey recognized recipients of seed grants, excellence awards, and graduate student funding.

InCHIP's founding director Jeffrey Fisher, Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor Emeritus in the Department of Psychological Sciences, attended the meeting to present the Jeffrey D. Fisher Health Behavior Change Research Fellowship award to Lili Romann, a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Communication in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

The Fisher Fellowship provides an outstanding graduate student with a paid assistantship to support dissertation research in the field of public health or health-related behavioral and social science research.

Romann's dissertation focuses on algorithmic exposure, or when an individual is exposed to health information by a social media algorithm. She will focus on hazardous algorithmic exposure, a type of exposure to algorithmically-driven content that may be triggering or distressing. Her dissertation is a mixed methods study that will explain the mechanism of algorithmic exposure and test the effects of hazardous algorithmic exposure on youth with chronic health conditions.

InCHIP's Dissertation Assistantship Awardee, Md Safaet Hossain Sujan, a Ph.D. candidate in Health Promotion Sciences, was recognized during the event. Sujan's dissertation seeks to address the unmet needs of men who have sex with men (MSM) to address current gaps in HIV prevention.

Leahey also spotlighted InCHIP's newest center, UConn's Center for Research on Sexual Violence and Empowerment. This was a recommendation from UConn President Radenka Maric's 2022 Task Force for Combatting Sexual Violence and Supporting Our Students.

Lisa Eaton, an InCHIP PI and professor in the Department of Human Development and Family Sciences, directs the center. Ryan Watson, InCHIP PI and associate professor in the Department of Human Development and Family Sciences, serves as the center's associate director.

Since its launch, Eaton and Watson have secured external funding, established new research infrastructure aimed at preventing campus sexual violence, and have worked with students to shape its research priorities and mission.

A comprehensive summary of the 2026 fiscal year is available in InCHIP's 2026 Annual Report.

Below is a look at all faculty and graduate students who were honored during the Annual Meeting:

InCHIP Seed Grants

• Faculty Seed Grant Awards

  • Mihai Duduta, School of Mechanical, Aerospace and Manufacturing Engineering
    • "Jellyfish-Inspired Heart Pumps for Cardiovascular Health"
  • Gio Iacono, School of Social Work
    • "Tuned in! In-Person Adaptation: A Community Pilot Study of an Affirmative Mindfulness Intervention to Improve Mental Health Outcomes Among Sexual and Gender Diverse Youth (SGDY)"
  • Baihai Jiao, UConn Health
    • "Targeting LSD1 Suppresses NLRP3 Inflammasome in Acute Kidney Injury"
  • Zexin "Marsha" Ma, Ph.D., assistant professor, Department of Communication
    • "Mitigating Defensive Reactions toward Alcohol-Cancer Risk Information Through a Fine-Tuned AI Chatbot"
  • Jiyoun Suk, Department of Communication
    • "AI-Driven Safety Judgements and Publicness Friction in Harm-Reporting, Support Seeking, and Counter-Speech Discourse"

• Poverty and Health Seed Grant Awards

  • Jessica Koslouski, Department of Education Psychology
    • "Exploring Use of Feel Your Best Self in Family Childcare Homes"
  • Anna-Michelle McSorley, Department of Allied Health Sciences
    • "Statistical Invisibility as a Structural Determinant of Health in Puerto Rico: Eliminating Data Voids to Combat Poverty and Chronic Disease"

• Community-Engaged Health Seed Grant Awards

  • Loneke Blackman Carr, Department of Nutritional Sciences
    • "Socially Networked for Improved Cardiovascular Health: Expanding and Empowering Communities of Black Girls Run!"
  • Tori Ann Woodruff-Gautherin, Department of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences
    • "Clinic-Based Measures of Pediatric Aural Habilitation"

• Human and Planetary Health Seed Grants

  • Dimitris Xygalatas, Department of Anthropology
    • "Sacred Ground, Healthier Minds: How Spiritual Meaning Shapes the Health Effects of Nature Exposure"

• Community-Engaged Health Research Rapid Pitch Seed Awards

  • Cristina Colón-Semenza, Department of Kinesiology
    • "Identifying the Needs of Individuals Living with Parkinson's Disease in Connecticut Through the PRECEDE-PROCEED Model"
  • Mayte Restrepo, Department of Public Health Sciences
  • Camilo Ruiz, Department of Anthropology
    • "Elevating the Voices of Youth in Immigrant Families Using YPAR"
  • Roman Shrestha, Department of Allied Health Sciences
  • Kamal Gautam, Department of Allied Health Sciences
    • "SAFE-SSP Suicide Assessment and Facilitated Engagement in Syringe Service Programs"

InCHIP Excellence Awards

• Junior Faculty Research Excellence Award

  • Oh Sung Kwon, Department of Kinesiology

• Excellence Award for Research on Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities and Racism's Impact on Health Outcomes

  • Candi Nwakasi, Department of Human Development and Family Sciences

• Community-Engaged Health Research Excellence Award

  • Cristina Colón-Semenza, Department of Kinesiology

• Excellence in Faculty Mentoring Award

  • Natalie Shook, School of Nursing

Graduate Student Awards

• InCHIP Dissertation Assistantship Award

  • Md Safaet Hossain Sujan, Health Promotion Sciences

• Jeffrey D. Fisher Health Behavior Change Research Fellowship

  • Lili Romann, Department of Communication