Laura Bracken is a lecturer of developmental mathematics at Lewis-Clark State College. She began her career as a secondary science teacher, graduating from Gustavus Adolphus College summa cum laude in 1978 with a double major in chemistry and natural sciences. Later, she returned to college to take more mathematics, qualified for a secondary mathematics endorsement, and continued on to a master's degree in education, concentrating on curriculum and instruction. She started the developmental mathematics program at Lewis-Clark State College in 1992. As developmental mathematics coordinator, she led her colleagues through the process of writing objectives, standardizing assessments, and… convincing administrators to enforce prerequisites and placement. She developed the curriculum proposals for "stretch" courses in Elementary Algebra and Finite Mathematics in which students take a one-semester course over two semesters, which improved success rates in at-risk populations. She has worked collaboratively with science faculty to make connections between developmental math courses and introductory science courses. She participated in a Title III grant for developing distance education and regularly teaches on-line developmental courses. She has presented at numerous national and regional meetings and is currently a regional representative for the AMATYC Placement and Assessment Committee. She is a co-author of Investigating Prealgebra and Investigating Basic College Mathematics.