{"id":247016,"date":"2026-06-01T12:12:33","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T16:12:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=247016"},"modified":"2026-06-01T12:12:33","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T16:12:33","slug":"7-school-of-social-work-doctoral-students-awarded","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2026\/06\/7-school-of-social-work-doctoral-students-awarded\/","title":{"rendered":"7 School of Social Work Doctoral Students Awarded"},"content":{"rendered":"

The UConn School of Social Work Doctoral Fellowship Awards Committee recently announced the winners of doctoral program internal awards. This year, the committee awarded $32,500 across five funding programs.<\/p>\n

“This was one of the most competitive cycles we have seen in the history of the doctoral program, with 14 applications received,” says committee member Cristina Mogro-Wilson, Zachs Endowed Professor, director, Ph.D. Program, School of Social Work. Assistant Professor Sukhmani Singh, and Assistant Professor Gio Iacono also served on the committee.<\/p>\n

\"Jie
Jie Zhao<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Patrick
Patrick Muro<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Parker L. Smacchi Doctoral Research Fund on Sexual Minority Health & Well-Being<\/a>
\n<\/strong>
\nJie Zhao<\/a> received \u00a0$4,750 for her project, “Understanding Cigarette and E-cigarette Dependence and Cessation Among Sexual and Gender Minority Emerging Adults: A Minority Stress Perspective.”<\/p>\n

Patrick Muro<\/a> received $4,750 for his study, “Holding Space in a Hostile Climate: Mental Health Providers’ Support of Transgender Youth Amid Restrictions on Gender-Affirming Care in the USA.”<\/p>\n

Dr. Nancy A. Humphreys Memorial Fellowship in Policy Practice and Political Social Work<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\"Fernando
Fernando Ricardo Valenzuela<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Fernando Ricardo Valenzuela was funded $4,000 for their study, “Bridging Research with Political Advocacy: Utilizing Critical Participatory Action Research for Juvenile Justice Policy Reform.”<\/p>\n

Research Facilitation Fund<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\"Kelly
Kelly Sanchez<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Yvonne
Yvonne Mbewe<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Yvonne Mbewe<\/a> received $2,000 for her study, “Protecting the Right to Childhood: Exploring Legislative, Clinical, and Social Service Interventions for Survivors of Child Labor in Zambia.”<\/p>\n

Kelly Sanchez<\/a> was funded $2,000 for her project, “Healthcare Experiences of Monolingual Spanish Speaking Undocumented Postpartum Medicaid Recipients in Connecticut.”<\/p>\n

Dissertation Research Fellowship<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Jamie
Jamie Smith<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Laura
Laura Moynihan<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Jamie Smith<\/a> received $5,000 for her project, “Being Degrowth: Dancing on the Cracks of Ecological (In)Justice.”<\/p>\n

Laura Moynihan<\/a> was funded $5,000 for her study, “Influences on Non-Medical Decision-Making Among Adolescents and Young Adults with Uncertain or Poor Cancer Prognoses.”<\/p>\n

Dissertation Writing Fellowship<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Craig
Craig Mortley<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Craig Mortley<\/a> received $5,000 for his project, “The Architecture of Precarious Belonging: How Asylum Law and Institutional Practice Shape the Structural Conditions of Belonging for LGBTQ+ Asylum Seekers.”<\/p>\n

Learn more about the School of Social Work’s Ph.D. students<\/a>, the Doctoral Student Organization<\/a>, and the Ph.D. Program<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“This was one of the most competitive cycles we have seen in the history of the doctoral program.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":201,"featured_media":247040,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2076,1870,92],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[2514],"class_list":["post-247016","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research","category-ssw","category-uconn-hartford"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-08 15:35:00","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247016","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/201"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=247016"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247016\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":247041,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247016\/revisions\/247041"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/247040"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=247016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=247016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=247016"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=247016"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=247016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}