Laura L. Dallman is doctoral candidate at George Mason University’s College of Education and Human Development. She is researching the influence of teacher emotional and cultural intelligence in establishing positive relationships with students whose cultural background differs from that of the teacher. Laura was an elementary school teacher for many years. She started and directed a preschool in Tbilisi, Georgia; taught in a local school in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and taught in international schools in Brussels, Belgium and Moscow, Russia. She also taught second and third grade and served as a resource teacher for Fairfax County Public Schools in Virginia. Before becoming a teacher, Laura worked in college admissions and as a paralegal for a Wall Street Law firm. She served as a legislative aide in the U.S. Congress and then directed the federal relations program for a professional organization of marriage and family therapists. In that role, Laura raised money for the organization's political action committee and organized the association’s grassroots program, Powerlines, in addition to representing therapists on Capitol Hill. While in Tbilisi, Georgia, Laura also founded an international women’s organization which raised funds for local disability orphanages in cooperation with Georgian women leaders. Laura presently serves as an assistant editor and reviewer of the School-University Partnership Journal and as an advisor to the Tuasil Aijtimaeiun Foundation for Educational Reform in Jordan. Laura graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a Bachelor of Arts degree from Augustana College, IL, and earned a Master of Divinity Degree from Yale University.