Lacey Studnicka

For the past 15 years, Lacey Studnicka, director of advancement for community services at Lutheran Family Services of Nebraska, has dedicated her life to fostering an inclusive and welcoming community for refugees in the United States. Starting her career off as a resettlement case manager at LFS of Nebraska, the program that resettled the largest number of refugees per capita of any state in 2016, Studnicka earned the ins and outs of reception and placement of newly arrived refugees. She now oversees programs that span the state including volunteer management, faith community sponsorships, career mentoring, refugee arts programming and creating a refugee speakers’ bureau, to name a few. Under Lacey’s leadership, LFS-NE’s refugee co-sponsorship program has gained national recognition, and she has raised millions of dollars for refugee services in Nebraska.