Laurel Hilliker
Sociology Graduate Student

Sociology Graduate Student Laurel graduated in December of 2004 with a B.A. in Sociology from Michigan State University (Magna Cum Laude).  She also holds a paralegal certification by the American Bar Association.  During her undergraduate years, she was a three time recipient of the Mildred B. Erickson Fellowship and volunteered as a Teaching Assistant and as a Classroom Manager/Liaison, while working full time in the Department of Family and Child Ecology. Laurel has been a guest lecturer in the areas of Advance Care Directives, Psychology, and Lifespan Development.  She is also a volunteer for Hospice at the Sparrow Hospice House in Lansing and for in-home assignments

She is a member of the MSU Business Women’s Association, Michigan Sociological Association, American Sociological Association, Mid-Michigan Advance Care Planning Coalition, Phi Sigma Theta National Honor Society, Alpha Kappa Delta Honor Society, Sociologists for Women in Society, and the Association for Anthropology and Gerontology.  She is a recipient of Who’s Who Among Students in American Universities and Colleges and was nominated by faculty for an Outstanding Senior Award at MSU.

In 2005, Laurel was awarded a scholarship by the Michigan State University Business Women’s Association to attend and present research in Visual Sociology at the American Sociological Association’s 100th Annual Meeting in Philadelphia. This manuscript has been accepted for publication in  Illness, Crisis and Loss, Baywood Publishing Company, forthcoming in Volume 14, Issue 3, in July of 2006.  Laurel also presented at the Michigan Sociological Association’s Annual Meeting in Ypsilanti. Her topic was “Social Psychological Perspectives on Altruism in Care Giving:  The Schiavo Case and Beyond”.   

 Her current research interests include medical sociology (end-of-life care issues; Advance Care Directives and Planning; altruism and care giving; grief and loss), the sociology of the body, visual sociology and social movements.

Laurel lives in Okemos with her husband Kevin, and has one daughter, Rachael, and three sons, Kyle, Jon and Drew.