Laura is an author, lifelong learner, and photographer. On her days off, you can usually find her outside with her camera, enjoying the beauty of the natural world.

History

Ask Laura where she is from, and she will tell you she is a Phoenician because she has spent three-quarters of her life in the Phoenix, Arizona area. Growing up, she lived in Chandler, Gilbert, Glendale, Mesa, Queen Creek, Scottsdale, and Tempe. She took a 13-year detour to Las Vegas, Nevada, and now she is back home in Phoenix.

Education

Laura started higher education learning 13 years after graduating high school.

At first, she wanted to be a school psychologist, and so she earned an Associate’s of General Studies in psychology at a community college.

She transferred to a university to earn a bachelor’s degree in sociology.

As she finished her sociology degree, she enrolled in a Master’s program for organizational leadership with the idea that she would be a useful addition to any organization, small or large.

After finishing her first master’s degree, she found that the university where she earned her first bachelor’s and master’s degrees did not have an online doctoral degree program that she was interested in. By this time, she had moved to Las Vegas, Nevada, and had learned to SCUBA dive. Because she is an avid reader, and an insatiable consumer of knowledge, she read everything she could get her hands on about SCUBA.

In the course of all her reading, she kept learning about what one can see while breathing underwater. While she found shipwrecks interesting, the fact that whole cities exist underwater was fascinating! She started asking, at what point did the people who lived there think that the rising water was just a flood, and at what point did they decide to move? She had decided her next degree would be in maritime archaeology.

Because the University of Nevada, Las Vegas was essentially in her backyard, she researched their archaeology doctoral programs. While they do not teach maritime archaeology, they do teach land-based archaeology. In researching requirements for applying to their graduate program, she saw that the department recommended a certain number of upper division anthropology credits at the undergraduate level. To qualify to attend these upper division courses, one must have earned a passing grade in the prerequisite, core courses.

She realized that by the time she completed the prerequisite lower division and the recommended upper division courses, she would only need an additional 2 or 3 courses to earn a second bachelor’s degree, which se did.

UNLV has a bridge program where you apply to the doctoral program and earn a master’s degree along the way. Toward the end of her anthropology master’s program, she discussed her updated career goals with her advisor, and they both agreed to terminate the program after she earned her second master of arts degree.

In the course of earning all these degrees, she found a love of museum work and realized her career trajectory was museum-focused, rather than teaching at the post-secondary level.

To be even more desirable as a candidate in the museum and non-profit industries, she earned a third master of arts degree in Arts Administration.

Photography

While she played around with point-and-shoot cameras before, Laura picked up her first DSLR camera in 2017. She learned many aspects of light, composition, and color from her friend and mentor.

She carries her camera almost everywhere she goes and searches for interesting viewpoints to capture. She enjoys night photography, landscapes, street photography, and flowers. She is learning the art of macro photography and people in motion.

Follow her blog to see her latest favorites.