Laura grew up in the suburbs of St. Louis, where she roamed wild & free with her little sister and their neighborhood friends. As a child, she loved to play in the common ground and explore the creek across the street looking for fossils, rocks and bugs. She attended Granny School with her cousin, where they ate graham crackers and milk for breakfast, listened to their grandma’s stories about the Old Country, played amongst their grandpa’s tomato plants, made witches’ brews in the garden, sang nursery rhymes, and ran to watch Laverne & Shirley whenever it came on. Laura’s mom was a teacher who spent her summers taking Laura and all the neighborhood kids on endless adventures, and Laura’s dad took her on quiet, treasured trips to bookstores. Laura’s love of books and bookshops and reading went hand-in-hand with her love of adventure and she took many road trips as she grew up and eventually traveled to Burkina Faso as a Peace Corps Volunteer. She was so inspired by the nurses she worked with in Burkina that when she came home she went to nursing school and then public health school. She worked as a nurse in the Emergency Department and in community health for 10 years before staying home with her 2 kids for close to another 10 years. She was so inspired by the teachers who taught her kids at FELP that once again she decided to change directions and follow her heart back to FELP, back to the classroom that nurtured both her and her children as she learned how to be the parent she wanted to be. Today Laura's favorite things continue to be road trips, adventures, fossils, playgrounds, books & bookstores, creeks... and coffee.