Laura oversees UWM's online and blended programs. She founded the Online Program Council, directs the seed funding program for new online programs, partners with the Learning Technology Center staff to promote new program development, works with University Communications and Media Relations and the Department of Admissions and Recruitment on marketing and student recruitment for this growing segment of UWM’s student population (see online.uwm.edu) and serves as the point person for regulatory compliance, data requests and grant proposals concerning online and blended instruction at UWM. Laura is currently serving as campus lead for UWM’s participation in the UW Flex Option, which will offer 5 self-paced and competency-based online programs in beginning in fall, 2013. She is managing a Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Next Generation Learning Challenge grant on UWM’s innovative U-Pace instructional model. She is also co-author of the UWM Guide to Developing Online and Blended Programs.

For the past two years Laura has facilitated the UWM’s Digital Future planning process, which is focused on emerging technologies and their impact on higher education, including teaching and learning; research; and university operations and services. She is also involved in campus-wide strategic planning and the Best Place to Work initiatives. She is a member of the Steering Committee for UWM’s Pathways reaccreditation project for the Higher Learning Commission.
She serves on the campus Web Steering Committee, facilitates the Educational Technology Fee Committee and is an ex officio member of the Information Technology Policy Committee.

In the area of instructional technology, Laura is a co-author of Policy Practice for Social Workers: New Strategies for a New Era and Social Work Skills for Beginning Direct Practice, a multimedia textbook with web-based case studies, both published by Pearson/Allyn & Bacon.

Laura is Academic Affairs’ liaison to various aspects of campus safety/emergency operations planning. Laura is a member of the UWM Behavior Review Team and chairs the Planning Team of the Emergency Operations Team. She also oversees academic continuity planning.

Prior to joining the University, Laura served as assistant to the provost at Illinois State University, where she worked on the University's strategic plan. Her background is in mass communication, and she holds a master's degree in journalism from the University of Minnesota. She has also completed coursework for a Ph.D. in journalism and mass communication at the University of Minnesota.