Laura Murray

Position
Assistant Director, Learning Programs, The McGraw Center for Teaching and Learning
Role
University Administrative Fellowship Mentor
Title
Clio Hall Award Recipient
Bio/Description

Laura is the Assistant Director, Learning Programs in The McGraw Center for Teaching and Learning, where she creates initiatives and programming to support graduate students across the university. Laura is also a University Administrative Fellowship Program Mentor.

Laura leads a program to support graduate student and postdoctoral scholar learning and thriving across the university. Her favorite part of this role is engaging directly with emerging scholars to help them identify and work toward authentic goals while cultivating a sense of purpose and meaning both within the academy and beyond it. Prior to joining Princeton in 2018, Laura was a Lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education, where she completed a Ph.D. in Human Development and Education. Laura’s scholarly and applied work explores the potential of educational institutions to promote young adult optimal development. She is particularly interested in the social, emotional, and academic identity development of students; well-being within university contexts; and transitions to and through higher education for under-represented minority and first-generation students, as well as for students with dis/abilities. Prior to her work in education, Laura was an independent documentary filmmaker for over ten years, producing social issue films for public television. She has a B.A. from Vassar College, an M.A. from Stanford University, and an M.S Ed. and Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania.

On her 2023 Clio Hall Award:

I'm completely honored. Most importantly, I think it shines a bright light on the work that not just I—but colleagues and other graduate students—are doing to support each other. I think that the award is an opportunity to highlight the great work that students are doing in terms of supporting each other's learning, thriving, and development as mentors, scholars, and leaders. It's also an opportunity to say that there's a lot more work that needs to be done. I hope that GradFUTURES continues to lead the way in emphasizing the importance of helping grad students develop skills so that they you will thrive wherever they end up post-Princeton.


Read more about the GradFUTURES Clio Hall Award.