Director
Lisa A Eaton, PhD (she/her)
lisa.eaton@uconn.edu | Google Scholar Profile | Curriculum Vitae
Dr. Lisa Eaton is a social and behavioral health scholar with training in psychology and public health who is primarily interested in social determinants of health and well-being. Her work focuses on the multi-level impact of social factors on linkage, access, and retention to social services and healthcare among diverse populations, particularly among those who have been experienced violence and stigma. She has developed and evaluated multiple interventions to improve health outcomes among minoritized populations. Lisa has served as Principal Investigator at Institute for Collaboration on Health, Intervention, and Policy since 2011 and as the Associate Director of the Southeast HIV/AIDS Research and Evaluation Project and Associate Director of the Sexuality, Health, Intersectional Experiences (SHInE) Lab. She began her studies at UConn in 2000 and earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology and her Ph.D. in social psychology. She completed her postdoctoral training in public health at Yale University.
Associate Director
Ryan J Watson, PhD (he/him)
ryan.j.watson@uconn.edu | Google Scholar Profile | Curriculum Vitae
I am an Associate Professor at the University of Connecticut. My program of research is focused on reducing health disparities among sexual and gender minority (SGM) youth and young adults. Motivated by the urgent need to reduce the inequities in health for vulnerable populations, I have focused my scholarship on SGM youth and young adults, their relationships within family and school contexts, and their health experiences. I currently focus on the health (in particular, substance use and disordered eating) among SGM adolescents (funded by NIH, R03DA046827) and emerging adults. My research utilizes data from my LGBTQ+ National Teen Survey, a dataset of 17,000+ SGM youth aged 13-17 from across the United States. My research has been featured on CNN, NPR, Washington Post, Live Science, USA Today, and several other media outlets. My current program of research (funded by NIH, K01DA047918) focuses on preventing health disparities (e.g., HIV) through prevention and intervention strategies (e.g., PrEP) attune to intersectionality.