Laura currently serves as an Assistant Professor of Practice within the UTeach Natural Sciences STEM teacher preparation program. She primarily teaches hands-on Biology and Physics courses to undergraduates pursuing elementary teaching certification. Laura’s courses challenge students to conduct experiments, analyze and interpret data, and engage in academic discussions. Laura also assists with UTeach's Project Based Instruction course by serving as a liaison between the university and K-12 teachers. In this role, she matches undergraduate students with mentor teachers, observes student teachers in the field, and provides feedback and planning support for students' project-based lessons. 

Before joining UTeach, Laura worked as a high school Biology and Chemistry teacher in Southern California and Washington, D.C. She earned a B.S. in Biological Sciences from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and an M.A. in Teaching with Spanish Bilingual Certification from the University of Southern California. Laura is passionate about connecting students to the natural world and cultivating lessons from diverse cultural experiences.

Alberto Martinez is originally from San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Dr. Riegle-Crumb’s research interests center upon gender and racial/ethnic inequality in educational experiences and achievement. As a sociologist of education, she is particularly interested in the role of social contexts, including friendships, schools, and communities, in increasing or ameliorating educational disparities in math and science. Her research also focuses on the complex intersection between gender and race/ethnicity with regard to educational inequality. Dr. Riegle-Crumb's work has been funded with grants from several agencies and foundations, including the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health. Her research expertise includes quantitative research methods and analyses of national datasets.