Ault, Lara

Biography

After completing her Ph.D. in Social Psychology from the University of Louisville, she taught at Holy Family University in Philadelphia, PA and then Tennessee State University, in Nashville, where she became Associate Professor. Discovering a unique opportunity to live near her family in Gainesville, FL and teach at a small Liberal Arts College, she accepted a position as Associate Professor at Saint Leo in 2011, and has served as Assistant Chair of Social Sciences since 2012. Her greatest passion (besides her family, including her 10 year old son, Ethan), is involving students in her research and helping them complete their own projects. Each year she takes multiple center students to regional conferences to present research, network, and learn about the latest studies in psychological science. She also loves dancing, and recently began homesteading, currently building and sharing a large vegetable garden, fruit trees, and chickens (eggs only!) with her family.

Research Interest

Dr. Ault uses the flipped classroom for her courses, minimizing lecture time and maximizing discussion and activities. She enjoys discovering and using new active-learning strategies that involve students using or evaluating material beyond memorization. While she enjoys teaching Social, Personality, and Introductory Psychology, her favorite courses are those in the research methods sequence. Her broad research interests include personal relationships and mate selection, racial and gender stereotypes and prejudice, self-conscious emotions (like embarrassment), perceptions of education and how we perceive ourselves and others. She also loves helping students identify their passions and preparing them readily for their post-graduate goals.