Welcome to the QT-RISE (Queer and Trans Resistance, Intervention, Solidarity & Equity) Research Lab!

Our mission is too advance research that centers intersectional queer and trans lives, cultivating futures shaped by collective resistance, transformative community care, and liberation-oriented scholarship.

Co-Directors

Meg S. Paceley, Ph.D., LMSW, associate professor, UConn School of Social Work
Gio Iacono, Ph.D., LMSW, assistant professor, UConn School of Social Work

UConn Student Members

Rue Amaya (undergraduate student, psychological sciences, minor in neuroscience; SHARE Research Apprentice, Office of Undergraduate Research)
Christine Audia (undergraduate student, SHARE Research Apprentice, Office of Undergraduate Research)
Grace Bridges (undergraduate student, SHARE Research Apprentice, Office of Undergraduate Research)
Spencer Evans (Ph.D. student, School of Social Work)
Sydney Glasgow (undergraduate student, sociology and illustration, SHARE Research Apprentice, Office of Undergraduate Research)
Kylie Harrington (Ph.D. student, School of Social Work)
Quinn Meehan (MSW student, School of Social Work)
Craig Mortley (Ph.D. student, School of Social Work)
Patrick Muro (Ph.D. student, School of Social Work)
Vivien Roman-Hampton (Ph.D. student, School of Social Work)
Kacey Thigpen (Ph.D. student, School of Social Work)
Taylor Tucker (Ph.D. student, School of Social Work)

Faculty & Staff Members

Samantha Lawrence, Ph.D., assistant research professor, School of Social Work
Sukhmani Singh, Ph.D., assistant professor, UConn School of Social Work
Ryan Watson, Ph.D., associate professor, Human Development and Family Sciences

Affiliated Researchers, Labs, and Centers

Jemel Aguilar, Ph,D., LCSW, associate professor, Fordham University Graduate School of Social Service
e. alexander, Ph.D., assistant professor, University of Kansas School of Social Welfare
M. Bishop, Ph.D, assistant professor, University of Maryland College Park, Human Development and Family Studies
Kristen Brock-Petroshius, Ph.D., LMSW, assistant professor, Stoneybrook University School of Social Welfare
Center for LGBTQ+ Research and Advocacy, University of Kansas School of Social Welfare
Shelley L Craig, Ph.D., LCSW, RSW, professor, University of Toronto Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work
Jessica Fish, Ph.D., professor, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Human Development and Family Studies
Ari Gzesh, Ph.D., assistant professor, Hunter College School of Social Work
Shanna Katz Kattari, Ph.D., associate professor, University of Michigan School of Social Work
Jax Kynn, MSW, doctoral candidate, Michigan State University School of Social Work
Briana McGeough, Ph.D., associate professor, University of Kansas School of Social Welfare
Dana Prince, Ph.D., associate professor, Case Western Reserve University School of Social Work
Sexuality Relationships Gender Research Collective, University of Michigan

Community Partners

Amara Everlasting
M Greenwood, LMSW
Liz Hamor, MS, Catalyst Empowerment Officer, Center of Daring
Kayla Perry, LMSW
Elida Paiz Pineda

Recent Lab Publications

Parental Sexual Orientation Socialization for Sexual Minority Youth: An Empirically-Derived Conceptual Model (Fish, Paceley)

Parental Gender Identity Socialization Among Transgender and Gender Expansive Youth in the U.S.: A Grounded Theory Conceptual Model (Paceley, Evans, Fish)

LGBTQ+ Familial Acceptance as a Moderator Between Weight-Based Victimization and Disordered Eating Behaviors Among LGBTQ+ Youth (Paceley, Evans, Iacono, Muro)

Eating disorders among LGBTQ+ youth in Kansas: relationships with mental and physical health concerns and family, school, and community climates (Paceley, McGeough, Evans)

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and questioning youths’ disclosure of their sexual orientation and gender identity across contexts: Processes, decision making, and related experiences  (Fish, Paceley, Evans, McGeough)

Tuned In!: 12-month longitudinal outcomes of an affirmative mindfulness intervention for sexual and gender diverse youth and young adults (Iacono, Mortley, Holle)

Tuned In! An affirmative mindfulness intervention for sexual and gender diverse young people (Iacono)

Critical hope and resistance through collective poetic inquiry: A resistance to federal attacks on queer and trans communities by scholar-advocates. (Iacono, Harrington, Meehan, Muro, Roman-Hampton, Singh)  

Current Projects

1. TGE Youth and Families Study: In 2025, we collected in-depth interviews with parents of transgender and gender expansive (TGE) youth ages 19 and younger and, when applicable, their TGE adolescent. Our goal is to understand how families are navigating an increasingly hostile anti-trans sociopolitical environment in the U.S. Stay tuned for future publications.

2. Gender Affirming Care Study: In 2024 and 2025, we collected in-depth interventions with mental health providers and advocates working in states that had banned, or were threatening to ban, gender affirming care. Or goal is to understand how providers are navigating practice contexts wherein their ethical mandates to provide affirming care are at odds with state laws that may be restricting or banning such practice. Stay tuned for future publications.

3. Queer Trans Disabled Imagined Futures: In 2025, we collected arts-based data from queer and/or trans disabled adults about their imagined better futures. Rooted in queer and crip theories of futurity and radical imagining, this study resisted the hostile sociopolitical climate, centered disability justice and intersectionality, and used art as a form of resistance to re-imagine what might be possible. Publications are in the works.

4. Exploring Social Workers’ Readiness to Practice with LGBTQIA+ Populations: In 2024 and 2025, we surveyed 10,593 MSW-level social workers nationally, across all 50 U.S. states to examine their perceived preparedness to provide culturally responsive, LGBTQIA-affirming services across ages and practice settings. Our goal is to understand their perceived preparedness to support LGBTQIA+ clients—especially transgender and gender diverse people—amid an increasingly hostile anti-LGBTQIA sociopolitical climate in the U.S., identify critical gaps in readiness, and inform social work practice, education, professional development, and policy related to LGBTQIA+ affirmative social work. One study paper will soon be published in the Social Work journal, with more to come in 2026.

5. Tuned In! In-Person Community Pilot: We are developing and testing an in-person adaptation of Tuned In!—an affirmative, mindfulness-based intervention—to strengthen mental health, peer connection, and access to wraparound supports for sexual and gender diverse youth and young adults (ages 14–25) at Anchor Health, CT. Pending the level of internal and external funding secured, the breadth and depth of this work will expand, but we are planning to conduct a community-based pilot randomized controlled trial and a structured training pipeline for UConn School of Social Work MSW students. Through supervised co-facilitation at Anchor Health, MSW trainees will build skills in affirmative mindfulness and minority stress–intersectionality frameworks to better serve LGBTQIA+ youth and young adults in their future practice.