In the summer of 1962, Laura's grandparents, Rolfe and Jean Birtcil, relocated their three children to Sacramento from Pennsylvania.  Her grandfather was a veteran and became a businessman in Sacramento while her grandmother worked at McClellan Air Force Base.   Laura was born in 1978 at Kaiser in Sacramento, and  was raised in a civil service family.  In fact, her mother, Jennie Martinez still works for the Department of Defense, as an environmental protection supervisor.

Along with her older sister Lisa, Laura was raised by a single mother, who escaped a violent first marriage, and lived in and around Sacramento for many years until moving overseas to Nuremberg Germany in 1994.  Her experience living in Europe helped expand her world view and although the distance from California was burdensome, she is thankful for the opportunity.  She graduated from Bamberg American high school in 1996. After years of being away from California, Sacramento drew her back and she returned here from Germany.

At first, Laura attempted to pursue a career in performance art having performed in theater since the age of 13, and she had just barely lived in Los Angeles until September 11, 2001. Laura was inspired by those tragic events to pursue a role in public service and soon found her way back to Sacramento.

Laura is the first generation of her family to attend college and to graduate.  In April of 2006, Laura was awarded the Women’s Opportunity Award by Soroptimist International of Sacramento North. Overcoming adversity, Laura put herself through school and earned a degree in government from CSU Sacramento. Soon after Laura began working at the capitol.

In 2005, Laura served the Sacramento community in the AmeriCorps program at Grant High School where she mentored foster youth: Her work at the capitol would later be influenced by those experiences.  Beginning as staff in the Senate for Majority Whip Senator Migden, Laura also worked as a staffer in the Assembly for Assembly Member Mike Eng and Assistant Speaker Pro Tempore Laura Richardson.

Despite being new to politics, Laura holds fast to her belief that Sacramento has the people, spirit and history to channel into finding common sense solutions to California's policy challenges.