Laura Wright, Director, oversees project work, new grant development, and partnerships. She has been an education researcher for over 20 years.
Prior to joining UW, she worked on projects related to English Learner education and assessment at the Center for Applied Linguistics. She has served on ONPAR mathematics and ONPAR science grants, researching how teachers and students understand and use the assessments and their outcomes.
Laura holds a Ph.D. in Linguistics from Georgetown University, specializing in sociolinguistics. Her research focuses on how students express understanding through discourse in complex learning environments and how students make sense of phenomena through spoken and written language.
Outside of work, she enjoys spending time with her husband and daughter and their two English Pointer rescues. Laura lives in Northern Virginia and works remotely for UW–Madison.