Laura Gelles is a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Texas at Dallas studying retention of undergraduate engineering students. Born in Reno, Nevada, she received her bachelor's degree in Environmental Engineering from the University of Nevada Reno, her Master’s degree in Environmental Engineering from the University of North Dakota, her Ph.D. in Engineering Education at Utah State University under the mentorship of Dr. Idalis Villanueva. At USU, she researched hidden curriculum, the mentoring relationship of graduate students within science and engineering, and the career paths and resources of domestic engineering doctoral students. She worked as a postdoc at the University of San Diego on their RED grant which strove to revolutionize engineering education by redefining the engineering canon as sociotechnical.