SCHOLAR DIRECTORY

Lacey Alexander is currently a 5th-year PhD student in the School of Nursing at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Lacey was an Early Entry Option PhD student at UW-Madison, which means that she received early research training and mentorship as an undergraduate nursing student. Lacey’s PhD minor includes coursework in psychology and women’s studies, with a strong emphasis on feminist theory. She has had a long-standing interest in the health disparities experienced by sexual minority women. One well-documented health disparity is that sexual minority women tend to weight more than heterosexual women. Lacey’s research explores this relationship between sexual orientation and weight. More specifically, she is interested in whether there are differences in health behaviors by sexual orientation that could explain this weight difference. Lacey also works at the bedside as a registered nurse at a VA hospital on a hospice and rehabilitation unit. One of her favorite roles as a PhD student is teaching. For the last few years, she has worked as a discussion leader, and currently as a lecturer, for a 100-level women’s health course for the Department of Gender & Women’s Studies. She recently held a Nurses for Wisconsin Predoctoral Fellowship, and is currently a research trainee at William S. Middleton Memorial VA Hospital.