Laura M. Stapleton is a professor in Measurement, Statistics and Evaluation (EDMS) in the Department of Human Development and Quantitative Methodology at the University of Maryland. Additionally, she serves as the Associate Director of the Research Branch of the Maryland State Longitudinal Data System Center.  She joined the faculty of EDMS in Fall 2011 after being on the faculty in Psychology at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County and in Educational Psychology at the University of Texas, Austin.

Each year she serves on the faculty of the National Center for Education Research (NCER) funded Summer Research Training Institute on Cluster Randomized Trials at Northwestern University.

Prior to earning her Ph.D. in Measurement, Statistics and Evaluation from the University of Maryland in 2001, she was an economist at the Bureau of Labor Statistics and, subsequently, conducted educational research at the American Association of State Colleges and Universities and as Associate Director of institutional research at the University of Maryland.