Nichole Huff
Assistant Extension Professor

Professional Profile

Dr. Nichole Huff is an Assistant Extension Professor of Family Finance and Resource Management in the School of Human Environmental Sciences at the University of Kentucky. Dr. Huff’s work focuses on improving the financial and mental wellbeing of individuals and families in and beyond the Commonwealth. Dr. Huff is a Certified Family Life Educator (CFLE) through the National Council on Family Relations (NCFR) and a former chair of the NCFR CFLE Advisory Board. She has devoted much of her career to family life education, crisis intervention, and community outreach.

As a trained family therapist, Dr. Huff’s work considers the comprehensive effects of family processes, especially healthy communication patterns and conflict resolution skills. Dr. Huff is a multidisciplinary family scholar whose applied research is designed to educate, equip, and strengthen human relationships. Her interests include financial resiliency, adaption, and recovery; family resource management; financial literacy; and the intersection of financial health and mental health.

Dr. Huff has published peer-reviewed manuscripts related to strengths-based communication, family coaching, interpersonal neurobiology, and effectively using online interfaces in outreach education. Recent Extension publications include topics such as estate planning, disaster preparation and recovery, and family resource management. Dr. Huff leads the financial literacy initiative MONEYWI$E (https://fcs-hes.ca.uky.edu/moneywise). She has authored or co-authored several Extension curricula including Transferring Cherished Possessions: Estate Planning for Non-Titled Property; Time Well Spent: Productivity Skills for Success; and the youth curriculum Building a Healthy Wealthy Future.

Dr. Huff is a native of North Carolina who joined the University of Kentucky faculty in 2020. She has won several state, regional, and national awards including the 2022 Outstanding New Extension Faculty award by the Kentucky Association of State Extension Professionals (KASEP), as well as the 2021 Dean Don Felker Award for her innovative Family Resource Management programming by the National Extension Association of Family and Consumer Sciences (NEAFCS). Dr. Huff teaches undergraduate courses in the Consumer Economics and Family Financial Counseling (CEF) and Family Sciences (FAM) degree programs in the UKY Department of Family Sciences.

Education

  • Ph.D., Family Sciences, University of Kentucky, 2013
  • M.S., Marriage and Family Therapy, East Carolina University, 2007
  • B.A., Psychology & Political Science, University of North Carolina, 2002