Laci Fiala

Born and raised in Nebraska, Dr. Laci Fiala joined the Walsh family during the 2009-2010 academic year. Laci completed her BS in Sociology and Speech Communication at Northwest Missouri State University (2004) and her MA in Sociology (2006) at the University of Nebraska- Lincoln. Her Master's thesis focused on the effects of school violence and fear of violence on academic achievement - a continuing area of research interest.Laci's other related interests include an ongoing project assessing the impact of race on substance use by rural youth, with an emphasis on communities with large Hispanic populations. Dr. Fiala completed her PhD at UNL (2009). Her dissertation focuses on the impact of maternal employment in the first year of a newborn's life on breastfeeding, the development of attachment, and problem behaviors in early childhood.

Laci also defines herself as a quantitative methodologist, utilizing a variety of advanced methods including structural equation modeling and hierarchical linear modeling in much of her research. Laci enjoys teaching a wide variety of courses.

On a personal note, Laci enjoys spending time with her daughter Addison. Aside from her family, her major passion is baseball. Go Yankees!