She is a sociologist who studies urban poverty and family life. Her mixed-methods research examines how neighborhoods and families reproduce inequality and how public policy affects these processes. Her recent work examines how family structure shapes social mobility and how families utilize public and private safety nets to mitigate material hardship. Laura received her Ph.D. in Sociology and Social Policy at Harvard University. Prior to coming to Cornell, Laura was a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Postdoctoral Scholar at the University of Pennsylvania.