Psychology department welcomes Dr. Jillian O’Rourke Stuart

Finlandia University and its Suomi College of Arts & Sciences has hired Dr. Jillian O’Rourke Stuart as Assistant Professor of Psychology. Stuart is coming to Hancock after completing her doctorate studies at the University of Iowa.

“I’m excited to get to the Upper Peninsula and Finlandia,” Dr. Stuart said. “I went to a small liberal arts school for my undergrad degree, and I always wanted to go back to that kind of environment.”

Dr. Stuart earned her bachelor’s degree in psychology from University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Virginia.

“I enjoyed the relationships I was able to create with faculty when I was a student,” she said. “When you’re able to keep class sizes small, there is so much more direct interaction between faculty and students.”

While at the University of Iowa, Dr. Stuart held more than a dozen teaching and mentoring positions, and seven times was granted travel fund awards. She’s been published and presented internally and externally dozens of times. Dr. Stuart has specific research interest in social and motivational influences on decision making and social judgment, optimism, risk and uncertainty, perceived vulnerability, social comparison and health decision-making.

“I am interested in research, and I’m looking forward to starting that at Finlandia,” she said.

Dr. Stuart is also passionate about the study of psychology, which she believes can open any number of doors to those who take time to study it.

“You can do a lot of different things with a psychology degree,” she said. “There are a lot of opportunities, and opportunities to customize it to what you want to do. I look forward to working with students to determine how this degree can work for them.”

Dr. Jillian O’Rourke Stuart will begin teaching courses at Finlandia this fall. Learn more about Finlandia’s psychology department by visiting finlandia.edu/psychology.