Member, Board of Directors
Laura Cossey joined the STS board in 2012 and has had several leadership roles on the board. In her professional work, she currently serves as the Director of Operations for PERTS (Project for Education Research that Scales) at Stanford University which helps educators apply insights from the behavioral sciences to create safe and engaging learning environments that foster student motivation and resilience.
Cossey has always had a passion for marginalized populations, especially children. She received her undergraduate degree in Elementary Education from Linfield College and began her professional experience as a classroom teacher in Oregon. She was then accepted to be a corps member in Teach For America (TFA), a career path that would lead her to work and travel extensively throughout the country. Cossey first started out teaching early childhood special education in a very rural community outside of New Orleans. During the summers, Cossey also trained new TFA teachers in Houston.
She then moved from New Orleans to Boston to join Teach For America’s recruitment team where she recruited college students all across the country to be a part of the program and impact student’s lives in low income communities. Ms. Cossey completed her MBA at the Heller School of Social Policy at Brandeis University with a focus on Children/Youth/Family policy.
After completing her MBA, Cossey worked on the development team of a research/advocacy organization focused on the needs of children, Children Now then rejoined Teach For America to manage all of the operations for their training institute for new teachers in New York.
In addition to reading and traveling, Laura spends her time being active in her church, taking coursework to become a licensed minister, and leading on another nonprofit board.