Dr. Laura Colket

Dr. Laura Colket is a scholar-practitioner and educational leader with over 20 years of experience spanning primary, secondary, nonprofit and higher education across the globe. A Fulbright Specialist with a Master's and Doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania, she has expertise in global education, experiential education, curriculum design, collaborative teaching and learning, project-based and inquiry-based learning, faculty development, and leadership development. She specializes in bridging complex institutional strategy with human-centered, equitable teaching and learning practices.

Her portfolio includes designing and leading innovative graduate programs, redesigning undergraduate core curricula, and spearheading faculty development initiatives in the U.S. and internationally. She has navigated high-stakes institutional transitions, including leading university-wide shifts to online teaching and the ethical integration of generative AI, while maintaining a steadfast commitment to social justice and environmental stewardship.

As a qualitative methodologist and co-founder of the Center for Research on Storytelling in Education, Dr. Colket uses narrative research, practitioner research and participatory action research to drive personal, professional and organizational transformation. Her published work, including the edited volume Becoming: Transformative Storytelling for Education's Future, explores how storytelling and research can fuel professional growth, organizational transformation, and educational equity.

Based in Ithaca, NY, Dr. Colket is completing her forthcoming book, "Leaders as Healers: The Courage to Humanize Higher Education." She developed the Whole Human Leadership approach by integrating somatic wisdom, creativity, joy, community building and nature-based approaches, and her work is dedicated to humanizing the workplace by helping visionaries move beyond burnout and reclaim their creative agency and well-being.