Staff and Students

Staff

Denise Fernandes

Project Coordinator
Department of Allied Health Sciences
Denise Fernandes is the Project Coordinator at the UConn Center for mHealth and Social Media, where she oversees staff and operations for the PREVENT study, provides clinical research support, and supports the Health Is Social Facebook group. She previously managed the RISE study and coordinated activities for the K24 Renewal Grant, Mentoring in mHealth and Social Networking Interventions for CVD Risk Reduction.
Denise holds degrees in Culinary Nutrition from Johnson & Wales University and Dietetics from Marywood University. She has more than a decade of experience in behavioral weight research at The Miriam Hospital’s Weight Control and Diabetes Research Center, in collaboration with Brown University, and continues to consult as an interventionist. Her interests include community health disparities, obesity, and cultural sensitivity.

Graduate Student Assistants

Gaofei Zhang

Graduate Assistant
Department of Allied Health Sciences

Gaofei Zhang is a PhD candidate in Health Promotion Sciences at the University of Connecticut. She holds an MPH from Washington University in St. Louis. Her research interests include digital health, health behavior, nutrition, social determinants of health, and the use of longitudinal and large-scale data to study health outcomes and health-related behaviors. Her work uses quantitative and computational methods to examine behavioral interventions, population health, and health disparities. In the mHealth Lab, Gaofei contributes to research on mobile health interventions and behavioral health, including studies related to dietary self-monitoring, weight management, and diabetes self-management. Her work in the lab includes study coordination, data management and analysis, participant follow-up, and manuscript development.

Shivani Vittal

Graduate Assistant
Department of Allied Health Sciences

Shivani Vittal joined Dr. Pagoto’s research team as a graduate assistant in Fall 2026 and is currently pursuing her MS in Health Promotion Sciences at UConn. She holds a master’s degree in Business Analytics and Project Management from UConn. Her recent work and interests in women’s health have inspired her to further explore health promotion research. She is particularly interested in mobile health, behavioral interventions, digital health technologies, and using data to better understand health behaviors and improve health outcomes. Through her interdisciplinary background in engineering, analytics, and project management, she hopes to contribute to meaningful, evidence-based research that makes health interventions more accessible, engaging, and effective.

Sandhya Niroula

Graduate Assistant
Department of Allied Health Sciences

Sandhya Niroula joined Dr. Pagoto’s research team as a graduate assistant in Fall 2026 and is currently pursuing her MS in Health Promotion Sciences at UConn. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Public Health from the Institute of Medicine, Nepal. Her recent work in digital health literacy has deepened her interest in how technology can shape health behaviors. She is interested in designing technology-driven behavioral interventions that improve population health, particularly through mobile health, digital health interventions, and social media research. As a public health researcher, she believes technology has the potential to make quality healthcare accessible beyond geographical boundaries

Undergraduate Student Assistants

Pari Parikh

Undergraduate Research Assistant
Department of Allied Health Sciences

Pari Parikh is an undergraduate student at the University of Connecticut, majoring in Diagnostic Genetic Sciences with a minor in Molecular and Cell Biology. She joined Dr. Sherry Pagoto’s research team in Summer 2026 through UConn’s SHARE program and continues her work as an undergraduate research assistant. Outside of research, Pari works as a Patient Care Technician at Hartford Hospital, where she enjoys working directly with patients and learning from different healthcare settings. Her research interests include human genetics, disease prevention, digital health, and how research can improve patient care. She hopes to pursue a career as a physician and is especially interested in connecting her experiences in research with her future work in medicine.

Riya Modi

Undergraduate Assistant
Department of Allied Health Sciences

Riya Modi is an undergraduate student at the University of Connecticut majoring in Allied Health Sciences on the pre-medical track. Her academic interests center on understanding health behaviors, improving patient outcomes, and exploring how technology can support accessible and effective healthcare interventions. She is particularly interested in digital health research, behavioral interventions, and the role of technology in promoting long-term health and wellness. As a member of Dr. Sherry Pagoto’s research lab through the SHARE Virtual Summer Apprenticeship, Riya contributes to research examining virtual weight management interventions. Her responsibilities include data management, quality control, tracking participant engagement and attendance, organizing study data, and supporting data analysis. Through this experience, she hopes to strengthen her research skills and deepen her understanding of how digital interventions can improve health outcomes and inform future approaches to patient-centered care.

Orjani Dunia

Undergraduate Assistant
Department of Allied Health Sciences

Dunia is a junior majoring in Allied Health Sciences on the pre-dental track, with a minor in Mathematics. She is interested in learning more about how research is conducted, especially when it comes to people’s health and how social media can influence it. In the lab, she helps with data collection and works closely with two graduate students on ongoing research projects. She also attends weekly lab meetings and enjoys being part of a team where she can learn from others and gain more experience. Through this experience, she hopes to better understand the research process and explore how research connects to her interests in healthcare.

Former Graduate Students and Fellows

JARED GOETZ

Jared Goetz

Research Assistant
Department of Allied Health Sciences

Jared joined Dr. Pagoto’s team in 2016. He is currently a PhD student in the Health Promotion Sciences program and a graduate research assistant. Prior to joining the PhD program, he gained experience as a research assistant/coordinator working on projects investigating emotion and attention, emotional learning and memory, PTSD psychophysiology and interventions, weight management interventions, and digital health. His research interests include the role of affect and other biobehavioral determinants of eating behavior, weight management, obesity and digital health.

Jessica Foy

Graduate Assistant
Department of Psychological Sciences

Jessica joined Dr. Pagoto’s team as a research assistant in Spring of 2023. She received her Bachelor’s of Arts in Psychology and Public Health at Lehigh University in 2020. She is a fourth year Ph.D. student in the clinical psychology. Her research interests consist of understanding how interpersonal relationships, such as with parents, teachers, and peer friendships, can impact psychopathology in children with disruptive behavior disorders.

Richard Bannor, PhD

Graduate Assistant
Department of Allied Health Sciences

Richard received his Master of Public Health degree, Bachelor of Science in Administration (Health Services Administration), and Diploma in Accounting all from the University of Ghana. He has several journal and conference publications, and also serves as a reviewer for a number of journals and conferences. Richard worked as a Health Service Administrator at the Ghana Health Service and is currently a doctoral student in the Health Promotion Sciences program. He joined Dr. Pagoto’s research team as a Graduate Research Assistant at the UConn Center for mHealth and Social Media in 2020. His research interests include social media, digital health, health behavior, healthcare innovation adoption, and pandemics.

Christie Idiong

Graduate Assistant
Department of Allied Health Sciences

Christie joined Dr. Pagoto’s team as a research assistant in 2021. She received her Bachelors of Science in Public Health and Masters of Science in Health Promotion and Disease Prevention at Springfield College. Her research interests include health communications, movement-based medicine, and digital health. She is currently a PhD student in the Health Promotion Sciences program.

Lindsay Palmer

Post Doctoral Fellow
Department of Allied Health Sciences

Lindsay joined Dr. Pagoto’s team in 2022. She graduated from Penn State with a Ph.D. in Psychology and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality studies. Her research primarily focuses on phenomena related to social disparities, stigma, and diversity.

Abiodun Atoloye, PhD

Post Doctoral Fellow ’21-22

Abiodun holds a PhD in Nutrition Science from Utah State University. Her research focuses on addressing nutrition disparities through improved access to affordable and nutritious food. She explores the determinants of and solutions to poor nutrition and health outcomes using a mixed-method research approach, geo-narratives, and innovative measurement tools. After her post-doctoral fellowship, Dr. Atoloye returned to Utah State as a member of the faculty.

Laurie Groshon, MS ’21

Laurie received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology at Goucher College in 2019. During her undergraduate career, she participated in two research labs examining topics such as childhood morality and coping expectancies in French-speaking adults respectively. She completed a Master’s degree in Health Promotion Science at the University of Connecticut. Her thesis involved a content analysis of tweets posted on Twitter during pandemic-related statewide shutdowns that discussed indoor tanning. She is now currently studying for her Doctoral Degree in Clinical Psychology at the University of Florida. 

Matthew Schroeder, MS ’21

Matt received his Bachelor of Arts in Psychological Science and Bachelor of Science in Applied Social Research at Miami University in 2019. During his undergraduate career, he participated in research labs studying undergraduate student motivation for research and social neuroscience respectively. He completed a Master’s degree in Health Promotion Science at the University of Connecticut. His thesis involved a content analysis of the viral hashtag, #HowIFightDepression, with a focus on adaptive, maladaptive, or both adaptive/maladaptive coping strategies. He is now currently a Research Coordinator under Dr. Nicole R. Fowler at the University of Indiana. 

kelsey-profile

Kelsey Arroyo, MS ’20

Kelsey received her Bachelor of Science in Psychology at Hobart and William Smith Colleges in 2018. During her time at the colleges, she served as a research assistant in the clinical health psychology lab for two years examining stress and mindfulness as well as cognitive fusion levels and physical health in college students. She completed a Master’s degree in Health Promotion Science at the University of Connecticut. Her thesis examined health misinformation shared in an online community for mothers. She is now currently studying for her Doctoral Degree in Clinical Psychology at the University of Florida.