Laura was born January 24, 1950 in New York City, the third of four children of John and Jeanne Kelly. Her father was a career Army officer, so Laura hit the road early, moving to Blacksburg, VA at 3 months of age; to Japan when she was 2. Back in the States at 4, Laura attended schools at Ft Hood, Texas, Ft Polk, Louisiana, Bad Kissingen, Germany, Detroit, Michigan, Ft Wadsworth, New York and Arlington, Virginia.

Laura came to the Midwest for college, attending Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois where she majored in Psychology. After graduation, Laura worked in a minimum security prison for boys in Hanna City, Illinois, then headed to Florida where she worked in a year round camp for emotionally disturbed girls run by the Eckerd Foundation. Her interest in working with high-risk kids led Laura to graduate school at Indiana University where she earned her Master’s degree in Therapeutic Recreation.

Laura returned to New York as a Recreation Therapist at Rockland Children’s Psychiatric Center, a state facility for children with severe mental health issues. She was director of the Recreation Therapy/Physical Education Department when she left in 1979 to move to Denver, Colorado.

Thinking she wanted to pursue a career in a field other than human services, Laura spent several months working through a temporary services agency. She supervised retail store inventory, re-wrote job descriptions for a large insurance company, taught customers how to use the then-brand new ATM machines at a bank, and filled in for the receptionist at a large manufacturing facility.

None of those jobs clicked. Laura discovered that working with and for people was what she liked best so she took the position of Director of Recreation Therapy/Physical Education at National Jewish Hospital for Respiratory and Immune Diseases in Denver. It was there that she met her husband, Ted Daughety, a physician specializing in lung disease and sleep disorders.

Ted, Laura and their daughter, Kathleen, moved to Salina, Kansas in 1986, when Ted took a position with the Salina Clinic. Laura became the Executive Director of the Kansas Recreation and Park Association and spent the next 18 years advocating for healthier Kansans and healthier communities.

Laura and her family decided to make Topeka home in July, 1987 (daughter Molly was born in August). Today, Ted is in private practice; Kathleen graduated from the University of Kansas in 2006 and is working in St Louis; Molly graduated from KU in 2009.

Settled in Topeka, Laura became an active part of her neighborhood and her community. She has served on numerous boards including those of the Family Service and Guidance Center, CASA, Visit Topeka, Inc, Sunflower State Games, and the Greater Topeka Chamber of Commerce.

Laura was elected to the Kansas Senate in 2004; the first and only elected office she’s held. Laura was immediately recognized as a legislator who was willing and able to work across the partisan aisle to get things done. After just two years in the Senate, she was asked to serve as the Ranking Minority member of the powerful Ways and Means Committee. She has worked hard to craft budgets that focus on services essential to the people of Kansas and that are wise investments in the future of Kansas.

Laura has been a leader in efforts to reform health care, making it more affordable, more accessible, to more Kansans. Additionally, she was a key player in the establishment and funding of the Early Childhood Development Block Grants which will ensure that more Kansas children are ready to succeed when they enter kindergarten.

Laura’s commitment to growing the Kansas economy is evidenced by her work on the Senate Commerce Committee where she has been a consistent advocate for policies that make Kansas attractive to businesses, old and new, large and small, urban and rural.

Having been reared in a career military family, Laura is keenly aware of the needs of the men and women who serve our country in uniform, and of their families’. To that end, she has advocated for programs that will help our active military and National Guard members when they are deployed and when they come home.