Laurel, originally from Pittsburgh, PA, received her BFA in Painting in 1974 and her MFA in Painting in 1977, from the University of Cincinnati. She has done post-graduate study at UCLA in Paleoecology, Sculpture and Scientific Illustration (1982), University of Tasmania Centre for the Arts in Semiotics (Australia, 1986), University of Tel Aviv in Hebrew (Israel, 1988) and a variety of coursework at GSW from Sociology of Religion, Literature, to Math and Culture (1979-2011). She has been a professor at GSW since 1978 and the chair of the department since 2007. Laurel has taught or presented visiting lectures at a variety of universities: University of Tasmania, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Tel Aviv University, UC San Diego, Maryland Institute of Art, St. Mary's University, Winona MN, University of Wisconsin, Whitewater and U of Georgia. Laurel's exhibition record spans her career with regional, national and international venues and her work is included in several museum permanent collections: The Jewish Museum of NYC, The Skirball Museum at NYU, Cincinnati Museum of Art, List College at Columbia University, NYC Collection and the Museum of Arts and Sciences in Macon, Georgia.