PROFILE

Laura Wray-Lake, Ph.D., is a professor of social welfare in the Luskin School of Public Affairs at University of California, Los Angeles. She received a Ph.D. in human development and family studies from the Pennsylvania State University, after receiving a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Wake Forest University and a master’s degree in psychology from Bucknell University. Her expertise is in adolescent development and civic engagement. Her research aims to explain the development of civic engagement across adolescence and young adulthood and identify factors that enhance youth civic engagement. This interest is grounded in the assumption that adolescents and young adults hold abundant potential to act as positive change agents and address society’s problems on local, national, and global scales.

She has written and contributed to nearly 100 peer-reviewed publications and book chapters on various topics including young people’s community service, political action and activism, identity, decision making, school and community experiences, and anti-racism. Her research has advanced knowledge of youth civic engagement over time and across social and cultural contexts using quantitative and qualitative methods. Her work has been funded by federal agencies and foundations, and her new book, published with Cambridge Press, is called Young Black Changemakers and the Road to Racial Justice.