Research Assistant
University of Illinois Chicago
Emilie N. Lacy is a Doctoral Candidate in Disability Studies at the University of Illinois, Chicago. Emilie earned her Master of Education with an emphasis in diversity and equity from the University of California, Riverside, in 2018. She earned a Bachelor of Science in Exercise Science Integrated Physiology from Pacific University in Forest Grove, Oregon, in 2015. And she earned her Associate of Arts from Pima Community College in Tucson, Arizona, in 2013.
Emilie’s dissertation is “Exploring the Dynamic Interaction Between Trauma, Social Support and Women’s Health Outcomes for Women with Spinal Cord Injury: An Intervention Mapping Approach”. Emilie’s work seeks to fill the sparsity of research about women with spinal cord injuries lived experiences of trauma. In addition, her work aims to collaborate with community-based organizations to increase trauma-informed support for this population through social support. Social support is shown to have a moderating effect on the adverse impact of trauma on physical and mental health, yet this has not been systematically examined among women with spinal cord injuries.
Emilie was a 2021-2022 Chicago Area Switzer Fellow. She received the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation Quality of Life Grant in 2022 in partnership with BACKBONES. She was a recipient of the Anne Hopkins Scholarship in 2024. Emilie is a 2024-2025 Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental and Related Disabilities (LEND) fellow. And is the current recipient of the Charlotte A. Tate Award for Multidisciplinary Research.
Emilie was a teaching assistant for the Disability and Human Development Department from 2020 to 2025. She was the Women’s Program Coordinator for BACKNONES from 2021-2022. She was a research assistant for Customized Adaptive Teaching & Assessment by Leveraging AI SYsTems in higher education (CATALYST) from 2024-2025. She has been a research assistant for IL LEND since 2024.
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