Laura Carney, PhD.

Born and raised in Western Massachusetts, Laura ventured to KY to attend Thomas More College where she received her BS in Psychology. While in Northern Kentucky she fell in love with Cincinnati. She returned to MA to attend Springfield College to earn her MS in Strength and Conditioning and then PhD in Exercise Physiology. As an undergraduate she researched attitudes toward homosexuality on a Catholic based college campus; then in graduate school her research focused on the rugby athlete. Laura’s master’s thesis investigated the effectiveness of the long jump and vertical jump to predict performance differences between Rugby Union forwards and American Football linemen. For her doctoral dissertation she investigated the effects of aging on female rugby athletes in regard to field performance for conditioning and skill.

Laura has been involved in various professions including:

• research assistant at Shriner’s Hospital of Springfield MA collecting data for childhood rheumatoid arthritis and gait analysis for children with cerebral palsy
• graduate assistant for the Office of Academic Affairs handling edits for theses and dissertations as well as correspondence on IRB projects
• coached women’s rugby at Mount Holyoke College for 4 years and assistant coached for a Div I women’s team at American International College for a year
• consulted as an exercise physiologist at Canyon Ranch in Lenox, MA
• personal trainer and exercise physiologist from her home gym
• strength and conditioning coordinator for Div II
• professor of research methods, statistics, and exercise science

Laura has a daughter Maddy and son Ace and husband Adam.  She has continued to stay involved with rugby as a player/coach/referee. Laura is a member of the NSCA and ACSM. She continues to pursue educating herself through academics and life experiences. Her research interests include the relationship between societal norms and assessments of health, and the acute and chronic effects of pregnancy on a myriad of health markers including anatomy and physiology, mental health, social health, etc.

Laura joined the Xavier team in the Fall of 2018 as a Teaching Professor of Exercise Science in the Sports Science & Management department. She is looking forward to cross-discipline collaboration and educating the exercise science students through integrated learning techniques and leading by example. 

 

Expertise

Applied exercise physiology, strength and conditioning

Professional Interests

Exercise and movement as preventative medicine, nutrition as medicine, intensity and volume training for all ages, physiological effects of pregnancy