Laura joined the PhD program in Iowa in Fall 2025.  She has a BA in International Studies with a focus on foreign languages and language teaching, and an MA in Linguistics with a focus on phonetics and second language learning.  Her love of language learning led her to become interested in how the brain perceives and processes sound.  She works with her mentor, Inyong Choi, in the Human Auditory Neuroscience Group lab on projects relating to auditory perception in hearing-impaired populations.