Find Your Mentor

Laura began her journalism career as an education and then crime reporter before striking out on her own and founding Homicide Watch, a data- and community- driven site for coverage of homicides in Washington DC. With licensing agreements in place for Homicide Watch, she joined the Boston Globe as a data and special projects editor, coordinating story development and production of investigative and enterprise work. Later, she joined Harvard Business Review as a senior editor working on series and longform projects. Now, after taking a caregiving break, she’s returning to her entrepreneurial roots with a new project focused on climate change.

Creating and launching Homicide Watch taught her how to pull teams together, create and execute on plans, and build partnerships. But the best thing she learned was how important the audience is, and this understanding is what she still brings to her work every day. Centering the reader is the most important thing an editor can do, whether that reader is on a website, in print, or on social media. She is excited to be focusing on these lessons again, and sharing them with others.

Laura was the inaugural Nieman-Berkman fellow in journalism innovation at Harvard University in 2013 as well as an inaugural MJ Bear fellow. Her work has been recognized globally and she has presented at journalism and ideas conferences around the world.