Laura currently chairs the advisory board of the Tufts University Art Gallery and serves on the University Gifts of Art Committee, charged with oversight of the Tufts art collection. She is also chair of the board of directors of First Night, Boston. She is secretary of the board of the Institute for Learning Innovation, a leader in the assessment of the effectiveness of informal learning organizations. She also serves on the boards of the Central Square Theater and the Mary Baker Eddy Library and Museum and on the Public Programs and Exhibitions Committee of the Massachusetts Historical Society. Her prior board memberships include the Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities, the community advisory board of WGBH, and the Education Committee (EdComm) of AAM.
Laura holds an M.B.A. in public and nonprofit management, with high honors, from Boston University School of Management, an M.A. in History Museum Studies from the Cooperstown Graduate Program of the State University of New York, and a B.A. in Social Anthropology, magna cum laude, from Harvard University.
She has been teaching graduate students in arts and nonprofit management since 1991. Currently, Laura is an adjunct faculty member at the Harvard University graduate program in Museum Studies and Bank Street College of Education's Leadership in Museum Education. She previously taught at Tufts University, Boston University School of Management and Lesley University. She is on the faculty at Developing History Leaders @ SHA (formerly the Seminar in Historical Administration) and is a frequent presenter at professional meetings and conferences.