Laura Nichols
Senior Fellow
Laura Nichols is a Senior Fellow at American Progress. Ms. Nichols spent eight years as advisor, strategist and spokesperson for House Democratic Leader Richard Gephardt, first as press secretary to the Majority Leader and later as communications director to the Minority Leader. In those roles, she served as Mr. Gephardt's spokesperson and was responsible for developing and managing communications strategies on a wide variety of policy issues for House Democrats. Nichols also served as press secretary to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and former Representative Vic Fazio (D-CA). She began her career in politics as the Iowa press secretary in 1988 for Richard Gephardt's presidential campaign.
Nichols recently served as Senior Vice President for Corporate Communications at Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) where she oversaw media relations, publications, speechwriting, government relations, online and education public relations, viewer services and special events. She is a graduate of the University of Missouri.