Faculty Directory
Laura Summers PhD
Clinical Associate Professor, Learning Design & Technology
- Affiliate Faculty, Leadership for Educational Organizations
- School of Education & Human Development
Email Address:laura.summers@ucdenver.edu
Office Hours: By Request
Laura Lee Summers, PhD is a clinical associate professor at the University of Colorado-Denver where she is the program leader for the Learning Design & Technology graduate program which includes the Teacher Librarian endorsement, Leadership for LDT certificate, and the Leadership for P12 Libraries certificate. She is also an affiliate faculty member for LEO and a faculty member for the Professional Learning concentration within the Leadership for Educational Equity EdD program.
Dr. Summers designs and facilitates professional learning with over 25 years experience in K-20 public education. She serves as a design and coaching consultant for online professional learning communities that are practitioner-led, include social, emotional and culturally responsive principles, and measure for student impact. She also serves as a facilitator of professional learning for effective coaching practices and educator well-being. While Summers has been associated with CU-Denver since 2006, she spent six years simultaneously working in the P-12 field to continue her professional growth as an Instructional Coach Administrator for district school coaches, as a Director of Educational Effectiveness, and as a Director of Professional Learning and Culturally Responsive Education (CRE).
Summers has written and been awarded 11 grants including three grants to implement school-based professional learning communities with coaching for CRE which were grant funded for over five million. The majority of her publications and presentations focus on virtual professional learning, social emotional cultural learning, transformative coaching for educational equity and measuring the impact as referenced in her linked CV.
Areas of Expertise
- 8 Dimensions of Wellness for Educators
- Measuring for Professional Learning Impact
- Coaching for Equity (Executive and Instructional)
- Digital Literacy and Pedagogy
- Transformative Professional Learning Communities of Practice
- Social, Emotional and Cultural Learning Strategies
- Culturally Responsive Teaching in School Libraries
- Qualitative Methods (e.g., Portraiture, Case Studies, Student Focus Groups, Interviews)
Education, Licensure & Certifications
- Ph.D., Instructional Design: Online and Blended Professional Adult Learning; minor in applied qualitative methods, University of Northern Colorado, College of Education and Behavioral Sciences, Greeley, CO
- Executive Leadership Certificate and Superintendent’s License, University of Colorado Denver, School of Education and Human Development, Denver, CO
- K-12 Principal License, University of Colorado Denver, School of Education and Human Development, Denver, CO
- M.A., Educational Media with added K12 library endorsement, University of Northern Colorado, College of Education and Behavioral Sciences, Greeley, CO
- B.A., English Education, University of Northern Colorado
Awards
- Lynn Rhodes Faculty Award for Outstanding Service (SEHD; 2021)
- Excellence in Teaching (SEHD nominee; 2010)
- Excellence in Service (SEHD nominee; 2009)
- President’s Teaching and Learning Collaborative (2009-10, 2010-11)
Affiliations
- AECT
- AERA
- Colorado Association of Libraries
- Educational Advisory Board for Clyfford Stills Museum
- Learning Forward
- NAMLE
Faculty by Program
- Applied Behavior Analysis
- ASPIRE to Teach
- Counseling
- Couple & Family Therapy
- Culturally & Linguistically Diverse Education
- Early Childhood Education
- Human Development and Family Relations
- Leadership for Educational Organizations
- Learning Design & Technology
- Learning, Developmental & Family Sciences
- Literacy Education
- Research & Evaluation Methods
- School Psychology
- Special Education
- STEM Education
- Teaching