Laura Gutmann is a doctoral student in the Culture, Curriculum and Change program at the School of Education at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her research focuses on the effect of educational policy on teachers’ professional identity development and classroom practice. She currently works as a research assistant for the FirstSchool project, but has prior experience in nonprofit management and early childhood education, including as a kindergarten teacher. She has an MSEd from Bank Street College and a BA in public policy studies from Duke University.