Laura E. Durso PhD

Laura E. Durso is the vice president of the LGBT Research and Communications Project at American Progress. Using public health and intersectional frameworks, she focuses on the health and well-being of LGBT communities; data collection on sexual orientation and gender identity; and improving the social and economic status of LGBT people through public policy.

Prior to joining American Progress, Durso was a public policy fellow at the Williams Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law, where she conducted research on the LGBT community, including LGBT homeless and at-risk youth; poor and low-income LGBT people; and the business impact of LGBT-supportive policies. Earlier in her career, Durso conducted research on the health impact of weight-based discrimination. Her research has been published in high-impact, peer-reviewed journals, including Sexuality Research and Social Policy, Obesity, and the International Journal of Eating Disorders, and she has presented her work at both national and international conferences.

She holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Harvard University and master’s and doctoral degrees in clinical psychology from the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa.