Laura is the Summit and Administrative Assistant at Sojourners.  Laura is a native Tennessean, and she remained in the state for her post-secondary education at the University of Tennessee, where she received her B.A. in Psychology, Sociology (concentrating in Criminology and Criminal Justice), and African Studies.  She loves soaking up all that she can and then using that knowledge to change harmful structures — at large and in seemingly micro cases. She gravitates frequently to matters of race relations and prejudice correction (i.e., what is necessary for people to acknowledge and then correct for their prejudices). She is particularly interested in impacting the church in its out-/in-reach, so that it begins to act on the radical, wholly transforming experience that is the Christian faith.

Laura can be found reading, doing research, working with kids, watching movies, being outside (when the weather is warm enough), and having intellectual and theological discourse. 

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You Can Apply Now for the Sojourners Yearlong Internship

by Laura Beard 12-21-2016
Because We Are Not Meant to Do Life Alone

Together in community, we have the opportunity to reveal our whole selves to one another: our pains, our joys, our doubts, our hopes, our failings, and our gifts. Being like Christ is to love people in their fullness — recognizing their strengths and not stopping there, recognizing their weaknesses and not stopping there. Because of our love for one another, we see each other. We do not dwell on our shortcomings, and we do not pretend their nonexistence. We are not wholly bad or wholly good. We are a beautiful, human group of somewhere-in-betweens who desperately want to live out Jesus’ commandment to love one another.