Laura is Senior Director of Care and Education at Mission Driven Finance, where she is launching Care Access Real Estate (CARE), a social impact real estate investment trust (REIT) that develops child care facilities across the United States. Laura also co-produces the Voice of San Diego’s A Parent’s Guide to Public Schools.

During the pandemic, Laura helped to facilitate the San Diego region’s child care response, which evolved into the San Diego Children First Collective. She was also co-investigator on a UCSD study of COVID safety in child care and elementary schools.

Prior roles include director of early workforce development at San Diego Workforce Partnership where she produced the influential report Workforce + Child Care; founding director of the Education Synergy Alliance, a nonprofit organization that mobilized partners around early education and career pathways; executive director of the New School Foundation in Seattle; director of education for the city of Seattle; advocacy lead for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; and education policy advisor to Washington’s governor.

Laura has a BA in Economics from Yale University and a master’s degree in public administration from the University of Washington. Her current volunteer roles include vice chair of the board of directors for Words Alive and the advisory board for Funding the Next Generation. Laura is an avid baker, hiker and skier, and watches in wonder as her college-age children make their way in the wider world.