Laura McCloskey joined Education Pioneers in the summer of 2008 in the Bay Area. Laura worked at the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) with the Deputy Superintendent of Instruction, Improvement and Social Justice, Tony Smith. SFUSD recently hired a new superintendent, Carlos Garcia, who helped pass SFUSD's new strategic plan focused on social justice and equity issues. Laura will help develop the new accountability scorecard used to assess administrators in the district. Laura entered the field of education as a volunteer in a public school during her senior year at Colorado College. She went on to get her Masters in education from the University of Colorado and taught elementary school for seven years in Arizona, Colorado, and California. Wanting to improve district, state and federal policies she experienced as a teacher, Laura decided to shift her career into educational leadership. She started by getting a Masters in the social sciences of education from Stanford University in 2006. Laura continued her studies at Stanford, and recently finished her second year in the PhD program focusing on administration and policy analysis. In her spare time, Laura makes phone calls to prospective voters, educating them on the merits of Senator Barack Obama.