Laura currently serves as a social research specialist at the UNC Charlotte Urban Institute. Laura’s primary focus at the institute is the Charlotte Regional Indicators Project and the accompanying Indicators Data Partners and Regional Database. In this capacity, she is coordinating the restructuring of this project, which includes designing an interactive web presence for the project and integrating the data for this and other internal projects as well as multiple Indicator Data Partners into a comprehensive Regional Database. In addition, Laura is involved with multiple client-based research initiatives and needs assessments for various organizations in the Charlotte community.
Laura earned a bachelor’s degree in geography from Macalester College (St. Paul, Minn.) in 2006 and received a master’s degree in geography from UNC Charlotte in 2009.
Her professional interests include demography, immigration, urban social geography and program evaluation.
MOST RECENT POSTINGS
Thursday, June 6, 2013 - 08:06
The Charlotte Regional Indicators provides critical benchmarks measured over time and compared to state and/or national data for the 14-county, 2-state region.*
Follow the links to explore the data with our interactive tools:
Case-Shiller Home...
Thursday, May 23, 2013 - 12:48
Click on an icon in the map below to see the hours of operation and contact information for each location.
Map by Zach Szczepaniak. For more information about Goodwill stores and services, click here.
Thursday, May 23, 2013 - 12:45
There are two new resources on Goodwill's Regional Indicators partner page – an interactive map of Goodwill locations and the updated Youth Services Catalog.
Goodwill Store Locations Map
Click here to explore the interactive store and...
Thursday, May 23, 2013 - 12:39
Mecklenburg County is home to one of the largest veteran communities in North Carolina. As one of the Regional Indicators Partners, Goodwill Industries of the Southern Piedmont collaborates with the UNC Charlotte Urban Institute to monitor...
Thursday, May 2, 2013 - 15:08
Maps by Zach Szczepaniak
Of all of its peers, Charlotte experienced the greatest change, gaining five counties and losing one for a net gain of four counties. For a metro area that previously consisted of six counties, that is a substantial...
Monday, April 15, 2013 - 09:46
As part of the 2009 youth needs assessment, the institute inventoried youth workforce development programs in Mecklenburg County. The resulting Youth Services Catalog includes all organizations that provide workforce development services for...
Thursday, March 28, 2013 - 12:45
Understanding the wealth of publicly available data can be both exciting and overwhelming. But plenty of people are eager to try. More than 150 neighborhood organizers, nonprofit leaders, local government staff, academics, and interested citizens...
Wednesday, February 20, 2013 - 10:54
On March 26 the UNC Charlotte Urban Institute, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, City of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County will host a forum in uptown Charlotte designed to tell the public about powerful sources of data and how to use them.
Data...
Wednesday, February 6, 2013 - 13:45
How does an organization like United Way know whether its work is making a difference? This sounds like a simple question, but it is an issue human service organizations around the country (and the globe) struggle with on a daily basis. In...
Thursday, October 25, 2012 - 10:20
Charlotte has lagged much of the country in this period of economic recovery, but the region has finally begun to see a few small signs of better days on the horizon. Over the past several months, there has been gradual improvement in the...
