A trailblazer and advocate for the advancement of girls and women in sport, Dr. Nicole LaVoi has mentored numerous Gustavus students and coaches as a leading scholar on women coaches.
Dr. LaVoi played on the women’s tennis team from 1987-91 where the Gusties won three Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) championships, finished fourth at the 1989 NCAA Championships, won the national title in 1990, and finished second in 1991. Dr. LaVoi earned AllConference honors in singles and doubles all four seasons and was twice selected to the Intercollegiate Tennis Coaches Association (ITCA) Division III Scholar Athlete Team. The St. Cloud, Minn. native culminated her collegiate career by earning the Evelyn Young Award, given to the Gustavus senior female athlete with the highest grade point average who is also a four-year letter winner.
A passionate and inspirational leader, Dr. LaVoi dove head first into being an advocate for the advancement of girls and women in sport by serving as the associate director at the University of Minnesota’s Tucker Center for Research on Girls & Women in Sport from 2005-15. Dr. LaVoi served as the co-director of the Tucker Center, the first and only research center of its kind, from 2015-18, and has been the director since 2019. Dr. LaVoi’s continued research focuses on Title IX and gender equity, physical activity and girls, media representation, and the women’s sports industry.
After graduating summa cum laude from Gustavus in 1991 with majors in health fitness and communications, Dr. LaVoi served as the assistant women’s tennis coach at Carleton College from 1992-93, and then was an assistant professor and head women’s tennis coach at Wellesley College from 1994-98. Dr. LaVoi has dedicated her professional career to the study of sport psychology, girls and women in sport, gender, coaching science and education, and the business of women’s sport. Dr. LaVoi earned her master’s degree in kinesiology from the University of Minnesota in 1995 and then her doctorate in 2002. Nicole lives in Bloomington, Minn. with her wife Kristen Edsall.
