Staff: Laura Perna

Communications Director

Laura takes a selfie from a low angle with a cute brown dachshund in her lap.Laura began her work at CTD with a stint as an Americorps VISTA in 2009 and joined the full time staff in 2012. She draws upon her background in languages and composition to manage CTD's member communications, website, and social media, as well as write and report on grants. She manages and supports various CTD projects, programs and events, noteably, the Raise Your Voice! advocate connection program and Cinema Touching Disability Flim Festival. She founded CTD's Pen 2 Paper Creative Writing Competition (on indefinite hiatus as of 2021), and once a month, she co-hosts the Lion & Pirate inclusive open mic with Art Spark Texas.

A Dallas native, Laura received her BA from the University of Texas at Austin and her MA from New York University. She joined Austin's non-profit community in 2009 as an administrative assistant and project coordinator at the Central Texas Library System. Her work there included the development and implementation of the Digital Literacy Corps, a program that paired technology trainers with 31 small libraries in Central Texas in order to offer basic computer training classes to library patrons.

When she's not hard at work at CTD, find Laura at the movies, volunteering at We Luv Video, or doting on her cats and dogs (right, with Tumbleweed).