Staff | Center for the Study of Interpersonal Acceptance & Rejection

Staff
	Director Ronald P. Rohner, Director of the Center, is Executive Director and former president of the International Society for Interpersonal Acceptance and Rejection. He received the American Psychological Association (APA) Award for Distinguished Contributions to the International Advancement of Psychology in 2004. He also received the APA Outstanding International Psychologist Award from the USA for 2008, and the APA Henry David International Mentoring Award in 2017. Visit Dr. Rohner’s faculty webpage.
	Senior Research Scientist Abdul Khaleque, PhD abdul.khaleque@uconn.edu phone: 860.486.6291
	Research Scientist Sumbleen Ali, PhD sumbleen.ali@uconn.edu phone: 860.486.3915
	Visiting Research Scientist Xiaoyan Xu, PhD Her research interests fall in the boundary of interpersonal acceptance and rejection. Specifically, she is currently looking into parents’ and children’s perspectives about parental acceptance/love, what contributes to differences between them, and how to bridge the two different perspectives. She is also interested in what skills are conducive to effective parenting.
	Graduate Research Assistant Katelyn Pitcher PhD student, Developmental Psychology, University of Connecticut, Storrs Her research concentrates on intergroup relationships and stereotype development in children. She is also interested in the adjustment and well-being of gender and sexual minority youth, including the effects of familial and peer rejection and acceptance. katelyn.pitcher@uconn.edu
	Student Administrative Assistant Shreya Harshavardhana Shreya is a Student Administrative Assistant. She is completing her undergraduate studies in Applied and Resource Economics at UConn concentrating in Business Management and Marketing, and minoring in Psychology. shreya.harshavardhana@uconn.edu
	Executive Assistant Nancy Rohner

Diversity Statement: The Rohner Center celebrates ethno-racial and cultural diversity both in its employment policy and in its program of multicultural research and application. In the last two academic years (2020-2022), for example, the Center has employed students who are African American, Egyptian, European American, Hispanic, Indian, and Pakistani. The Senior Scientist in the Rohner Center is Bangladeshi-American.