Lucie Holmgreen

Dr. Lucie Holmgreen uses experimental methodology to study sexual violence. She is particularly interested in relationships among rape myths (false beliefs about rape that blame the victim, exonerate the perpetrator, or minimize the act), personality, and risk of perpetration. Some of her past work has examined how attachment (the ways we think, feel, and behave in close relationships) and attraction to particular personality traits in others may contribute to sexual assault perpetration. She has contributed to empirical work examining the complex relationships among trauma exposure, traumatic stress (e.g., PTSD), physical health, and interactions with the healthcare system, and she has written various book chapters about both traumatic stress and sexual violence. Dr. Holmgreen is passionate about involving undergraduates in her research lab and considers her student researchers’ contributions to be integral to her work.

Although her research skews a bit toward the social psychology realm, Dr. Holmgreen is a clinical psychologist by training, and her favorite courses to teach are Psychopathology (about mental illness), the Psychology of Sexual Assault (an upper-level seminar), and Health Psychology (a 200-level survey course about the clinical sub-field of health psychology). She strives to constantly update and improve her teaching methods and content, and, in Introductory Psychology, she is especially fond of helping students learn to read and understand scientific literature.

Dr. Holmgreen is also passionate about serving the Gustavus community outside of teaching and research by serving as chair or co-chair of various faculty committees, including Faculty Senate. She enjoys working with faculty and staff across campus, finding common ground among diverging perspectives. Being a professor at Gustavus is her dream job.

Dr. Holmgreen received her B.A. in psychology from Ohio State University and her M.S. and Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Marquette University in Milwaukee. She completed her internship at a VA hospital and Indian Health Service in Albuquerque and a postdoctoral fellowship in traumatic stress at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago.

Outside of Gustavus, Dr. Holmgreen enjoys spending time with her husband and two children. She is particularly fond of reading and playing video games with her older child and coloring with her younger one. She also loves to read in many genres and to cross-stitch. Once upon a time (before becoming a parent), she enjoyed playing copious amounts of board games and she looks forward to resuming that hobby someday soon — perhaps when her youngest kiddo is up for something other than Candyland.