LauraTerech-944.jpg Laura has lived in Arizona since she was two years old, and can't imagine living anywhere besides the desert. Throughout her childhood, she attended public K-12 schools and received her Bachelor of Arts from the University of Arizona.

​ While attending grad school in 2004 in New York, the presidential election was an important background character to Laura's life.

She asked herself, "How can you make the world a better place?" She knew she needed to make a change, left her job as a teaching assistant and her life in New York, and moved back to Arizona. She earned her Master's in Education from Arizona State University and began teaching in a Title 1 school district. In 2010, Laura was named the Copper King Teacher of the Year. ​ It was early in her teaching career when part of her classroom ceiling collapsed over a rug full of kindergartners. She shielded the children with her own body, and ensured no child was injured. But it was another awakening for Laura. ​ "How can we make sure this never happens again? How do we protect our children from their own crumbling schools?" After a career as an elementary school teacher in the Pendergast Elementary School District, Laura turned to community organizing, knowing we must make structural changes to how and when Arizona invests in its public schools. She's spent the last several years as a leader in her community and local advocacy groups focused on public education and voting rights. ​ Laura is ready to take her voice and her experience to get to work at the Capitol.