Laura Cruz is an Associate Research Professor for Teaching & Learning Scholarship with the Schreyer Institute for Teaching Excellence at Penn State. She previously served as the director of two Centers for Teaching and Learning; as editor-in-chief of three teaching-related journals, as elected member of the national board for faculty developers in the United States, and as principle investigator for four externally funded grants.

Her publications and invited presentations include work in her first discipline (history) as well as the areas of instructional design, educational development, the scholarship of teaching and learning, organizational change, and educational innovation.