Background
Beth Russell is an Associate Professor in the Department of Human Development and Family Sciences and is the Director of the Center for Applied Research in Human Development (CARHD), a CSCH partner. Russell studies self-regulation, in particular the regulation of psychological distress. She has focused on that work in school, early childcare, and college settings, and most recently has been an evaluator for programs that use trauma-informed practices to help children identified as high risk. Some of her recent work has also focused on the importance of family engagement. “Whether I am studying parent-child interactions or I’m studying children in their school settings it is all done with the intent to paint the clearest picture about how children, and young adults learn to cope with distress,” says Russell.
Involvement with CSCH
Dr. Russell first became involved with CSCH as an affiliate and recently joined the steering committee in 2018. She believes that the work of the Collaboratory is important because it brings together expertise from different disciplines as they look at school and child health. Russell believes the Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child Model provides a comprehensive way of thinking about these issues. “I’m excited that Connecticut is taking a pretty progressive stance on how to bring together the stakeholders that are invested in child and young adult outcomes,” she says.
For Russell, bringing in outside stakeholders and sharing and disseminating information and research is a key part of what the Collaboratory is doing. “It is part of our university’s mission to share what we know with the community that supports us. That is central to our Land Grant mission,” says Russell. “We should all share what we do and learn. And doing so by forming organizations like the Collaboratory that helps organize and structure the way that we communicate about shared work is an important thing.”
Fun Facts
Dr. Russell is a Husky and earned her PhD at UConn. She loves gardening, cooking, and traveling.