Delegate Laufer grew up as one of eight children on a dairy farm in rural Wisconsin. She is a first-generation college graduate and supported herself through school at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee by working several jobs, including packing fish in Alaska, and earned a bachelor’s degree in geology. After college, she was a water analyst for the state of Wisconsin. Eventually, she taught elementary school and worked with a local agricultural co-op in a rural town in Jamaica as a U.S. Peace Corps volunteer. She established that community’s first lending library and organic learning garden — both of which still exist today.
After the Peace Corps, Delegate Laufer was inspired to pursue a career as an educator. She attended the Teachers College at Columbia University in New York City and graduated with a master’s degree in secondary science education. At the end of the academic year, she moved to Charlottesville, following her soon-to-be husband, Aaron, whom she met in the Peace Corps. She taught math and science at Louisa County Middle School and Tandem Friends School and was appointed to the Commission of Children and Families.
Prior to being elected to the House of Delegates, Delegate Laufer was elected as a member of the Charlottesville City School Board from 2011 to 2019, and to serve as the Board’s Chair from 2015 to 2016.
After her experiences in UVA’s Sorensen Institute of Political Leaders Program and Emerge Virginia’s elected leadership bootcamp, she launched Virginia’s List in 2014 to support Democratic women running for state office and has helped dozens of candidates get elected. When she's not legislating, she's training women who run for school boards across the Commonwealth!
Since being sworn in to the Virginia House of Delegates in January of 2024, Delegate Laufer proudly serves the people of Virginia’s 55th District as a member of the House Finance Committee, Education Committee, and the Committee on Agriculture, Chesapeake, and Natural Resources. She's also been appointed as the Chair of the Disability Commission and currently acts as a member on a number of other boards and commissions, including the House Select Committee on Rural Health Care, the State Water Commission, and the Special Task Force on Free Speech.
Delegate Laufer currently lives in Albemarle County with her family–husband Aaron and children Hannah, Adam, and Henry.