Laura has been working with Our Children’s Trust since 2021 and joined the staff in 2023. Since then, she’s helped litigate cases like Navahine v. Hawaiʻi Dept. of Transportation and Juliana v. United States.
In her past career as a social anthropologist, she studied large-scale injustices, including poverty-wage jobs, Coca-Cola’s privatization of water, and fossil-fuel expansion amidst the climate crisis. Her research focused on how grassroots movements can hold power structures accountable. Because courts play a crucial role in protecting fundamental rights, she left her job as a tenure-track assistant professor of social sciences at Kettering University to join the legal fight for children’s right to a livable climate.
Laura has a JD from the University of Michigan Law School, a PhD in social anthropology from the University of Manchester (UK), an MA from CIESAS-Sureste (Mexico), and a BA from Albion College.