She has been teaching at the University of West Florida since 1993. She earned a B.S. in Computer Engineering from the University of New Mexico in 1984 and a M.S. in Computer Science from the Naval Postgraduate School in 1989, and a Ph.D. in Instructional Design for Online Learning at Capella University in 2006. She is a retired Surface Warfare Officer from the U.S. Navy. Laura has coauthored a book chapter on assessment, and has written numerous conference and journal publications regarding teaching programming, online learning, and software oriented architecture. She attended the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in 2010 and has been enthusiastically developing apps and teaching iPhone programming at the University of West Florida ever since.