Laura Grunin

Laura Grunin is a PhD student NYU Rory Meyers College of Nursing. She is currently a member of several research teams working on different studies including the perspectives and experiences of school personnel regarding bullying and students with chronic health conditions, habitual physical activity patterns in a nationally representative sample of US adults, and sleep habit associations with HbA1C and HOMA-IR results using a nationally representative dataset of US adults. Laura’s dissertation research will focus on the mental health of children and youth in school settings.

After earning a bachelor’s degree in Exercise Science from Rutgers University, she gave birth to three children before deciding to return back to school to pursue her passion of nursing. Laura earned the Francis Velardi Award by graduating at the top of her class and went straight to work as a registered nurse at Saint Peter’s University Hospital in New Brunswick, NJ. While developing her clinical expertise at the bedside in the Labor and Delivery Department, she simultaneously returned to school once again to earn a BSN, broadening her perspective on the field. A family relocation interrupted her career in the acute care setting but opened up the chance for the lifelong learner to go back to school yet again, earning an MSN from Kean University, where her work mainly focused on the importance of a bachelor level education for all RNs. Laura quickly identified her love of teaching and was able to fuse her two passions by becoming an adjunct faculty member at the very same university, teaching core courses to the bachelor’s level registered nurses. Laura’s career trajectory has allowed her to increase her impact exponentially - first at the bedside treating one patient at a time, then teaching the next generation of nurses, thereby impacting each of their patients, and now in her doctoral work, conducting and disseminating her research to even more practitioners.