Laura Jordan is a Senior Educational Consultant for Teaching Matters with expertise in secondary language arts, literacy, and culturally and linguistically diverse education. Prior to joining Teaching Matters, Laura spent over 25 years in the field of education supporting schools as a National Board Certified Teacher (Adolescence and Young Adulthood Language Arts), AVID coordinator, and high school literacy coordinator in Colorado, where she innovated the use of musicals to teach literacy strategies to underserved populations. As a result of these innovations and their impact on her students, she was named the Kay Mervar Outstanding Reading Educator and was awarded the Jared Polis Distinguished Educator Award. She also served as an adjunct instructor at the University of Colorado School of Education, where she co-designed and taught Secondary Reading and Literacy and also taught Differentiated Instruction in the Secondary Content Classroom. Laura earned her Bachelor of Arts in English Literature and Masters of Arts in both Literacy and Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Education from the University of Colorado.