After completing undergraduate degrees in French and International Studies at Willamette University, Laura spent a year in France as an English teaching assistant in a French high school. Upon returning to the United States, she completed a master's degree in Higher Education Administration at Stanford University before working as a Resident Director at Lewis & Clark College. She joined the staff at Oregon State University in 1996 as advisor for the then Global Graduates Program (now IE3 Global Internships) and began directing OUS exchange programs in France in July 2002.