Laura Wray-Lake is a Professor in Social Welfare and Human Development & Psychology at UCLA. She received her PhD from Penn State University (2010) in Human Development and Family Studies, a master's in psychology from Bucknell University (2004) and a Bachelor's of Arts in Psychology at Wake Forest University (2002). Her research focuses on adolescents' and young adults' civic engagement to understand how and why young people from different backgrounds and contexts become engaged in social and political change. Dr. Wray-Lake is a member and Elected Board member of the Society for Research on Adolescence and is also a member of the Society for Research on Child Development and the Society for Social Work and Research. She is an Associate Editor of the Journal of Research on Adolescence, and received the Midcareer Award for Research Excellence from the Society for Research on Adolescence in 2020.