Laura Duckett, PhD, MPH, RN University of Minnesota, School of Nursing (Emerita), Minneapolis, MN, USA

Laura Duckett, PhD, MPH, RN, is an Associate Professor, School of Nursing and Center for Spirituality and Healing, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, Minneapolis, MN. She earned her BSN from Duke University, Durham, NC; her MS in Maternal-Child Nursing from the University of Maryland, Baltimore; and her PhD in Educational Psychology and her MPH in Maternal and Child Health from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. Her research and professional writing have been focused on breastfeeding, infant nutrition, maternal employment during the first postpartum year, combining employment outside the home and breastfeeding, maternal-infant attachment, postpartum adaptations for families of full-term and premature infants, nurse screening for domestic abuse, and testing Reiki touch as an intervention for premature infants. She and a PhD advisee opened the first nursing mothers room at the University of Minnesota in 1994, which has been in continuous operation since. There are now 16 rooms where mothers can pump milk for their infant on campus. Dr. Duckett is currently serving on the campus-wide Lactation Advocacy Committee comprised of faculty, staff, and students who are working to further increase the number of lactation rooms across the entire large UMN campus.

Affiliations: School of Nursing and Center for Spirituality and Healing, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, Minneapolis, MN