Laura V. Gonzalez-Murphy is a Postdoctoral Fellow at The Research Foundation for The State University of New York, where she has assisted in the development and implementation of the Global Mobility Regimes project. In this capacity she has worked to bring together scholars and members of the policy community on migration and security issues, to assess the extent to which international regimes have developed to govern international relations with respect to migration and mobility.  She also teaches at the University at Albany and is currently teaching Latin American and Caribbean Politics and will teach in the Spring 2010 The History, Politics and Economics of Food and American Foreign Policy.

 

Since 2001 she has served as Research Interviewer for Advocates for Human Potential, Inc., conducting original research with highly-sensitive populations including the homeless and recently released prisoners.  Her research conducted with homeless mothers led to the opening of the Sherman Street House, a home in Albany, New York, where previously-homeless mothers can continue to receive guidance and supportive services to avoid returning to shelters.

 

This year she was elected member of the Board of Directors of the Empire Justice Center, a statewide, multi-issue, multi-strategy public interest law firm focused on changing the "systems" within which poor and low income families live.

 

From 2006 to 2007, Gonzalez-Murphy co-chaired the Civil Rights for Immigrants Committee of the Regional Initiative Supporting Empowerment when she, along with Lucia Gutierrez, received the Jobs with Justice Community Award.  In her previous tenure Gonzalez-Murphy worked as Program Assistant for the New York State Office of Rural Affairs, where she was the staff person and frequent chair of the Governor's Coordinating Committee on Farm-worker Services.

 

Gonzalez-Murphy has taught Introduction to Comparative Politics and International Relations.  She is fluent in Spanish with the ability and experience of working with many culturally-diverse populations. She holds a Master of Science degree in Urban Planning and Environmental Studies from Rensselear Polytechnic Institute and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Elmira College, where she graduated Summa Cum Laude and was inducted in to the Phi Beta Kappa academic honor society. Gonzalez-Murphy received her Doctorate in Comparative Politics and International Relations this August (2009) having concentrated on immigration policy. Her dissertation is titled Change and Continuity in Mexico's Immigration Policy: How Civil Society Organizations Influence the Policy Process.

Read more about Dr. Gonzalez-Murphy's research in the Fall 2011 Rockefeller College News Magazine.