Laura Brown is a senior advisor at Ithaka S+R, working on a range of projects related to justice initiatives, libraries, and scholarly communication. Laura spearheaded the American Prison Newspapers project, and helps to bring JSTOR to prison education programs across the United States.

For ten years, Laura was the executive vice president for ITHAKA and managing director of JSTOR. Previously, she served as the managing director of Ithaka S+R. Laura is the author of University Publishing in A Digital Age, and has overseen work on a number of research programs and consulting projects, including the sustainability of academic initiatives, new models for library collaboration, changing faculty attitudes and publishing behaviors, open courseware and university-sponsored online courses, and new e-book publishing models for university presses.

Prior to joining ITHAKA, Laura was the president of Oxford University Press, USA, where she spent most of her professional career. She has led a variety of publishing divisions, including scholarly, professional, reference, trade, and textbooks operations, and helped Oxford to make the transition to digital publishing. Currently a trustee of the Gordon Parks Foundation and member of the University of the People Library Leadership group, she served on the boards of The MIT Press and Yale University Press, and as an overseer of the University of Pennsylvania Libraries. 

She holds a bachelor of arts from Goucher College, a master of arts from Johns Hopkins University, and a master of fine arts in painting from Indiana University.