Rate My Professor Laura Nichols

As an applied sociologist, Nichols focuses on making social science research accessible to organizations and policymakers, with emphasis on education, experiences of first-generation and transfer college students, inequalities, participatory program planning and evaluation, and sociology in non-profit organizations. Her authored book is The Journey Before Us: First-Generation Pathways from Middle School to College (Rutgers University Press, 2020). She co-edited Undocumented and In College: Students and Institutions in a Climate of National Hostility (Fordham University Press, 2017). Selected peer-reviewed publications include 'Pushing and Pulling Emerging Adults through College: College Generational Status and the Influence of Parents and Others in the First Year' (Journal of Adolescent Research, 2016), 'Social Desire Paths: A New Theoretical Concept to Increase the Usability of Social Science Research in Society' (Theory and Society, 2014), 'Addressing Exclusion in Organizations: Social Desire Paths and Undocumented Students Attending College' (Social Problems, 2019), and 'Homelessness and the Mobile Shelter System: Public Transportation as Shelter' (Journal of Social Policy, 2011). Awards include the President’s Award (2016), Brutocao Award for Curriculum Innovation (2008), Support of University Mission Award (2004), and Rosabeth Moss Kanter Award for Excellence in Work-Family Research (2001). She chaired the American Sociological Association Section on Sociological Practice and Public Sociology (2014–2015), served as Commissioner on the Accreditation of Programs in Applied and Clinical Sociology (2012–2015), and has delivered invited lectures such as 'Supporting Aspiring First-Generation College Students' (2022) and 'What Students? Which Mission?' (2021).