Laura J. Praglin, Ph.D., L.M.S.W. is an Associate Professor of Social Work at the University of Northern Iowa. Her research and teaching interests include the history of social work, especially the interaction of the early social work profession with other civicand religious organizations. She earned graduate degrees in Social Work (M.A.) and in Religion and the Human Sciences (Ph.D.) from the University of Chicago, as well as an M.A. in Religion from Yale University.

Dr. Praglin has published on Ida Cannon, Ethel Cohen, and early medical social work in Boston, and is currently completing a book on the origins of medical social work in the U.S. She is the recipient of a Clarke Chambers Fellowship from the Social Welfare History Archives at the University of Minnesota, as well as two research grants from the Schlesinger Library for the History of Women in America at Harvard University. She has assisted in the preparation of two extensive historical publication projects: Bibliography of Early American Law, 6 vols. ed. M.L. Cohen, Yale Law School (Wm. S. Hein, 1998); and the Correspondence of Roger Williams, ed. G. Lafantasie, Rhode Island Historical Society (Brown Univ. Press/Univ. Press of New England, 1988). Laura Praglin’s other teaching, research and practice interests include the dialogue between social work and diverse forms of spirituality , as well as conflict resolution. She also serves as Coordinator of the Conflict Resolution certificate program for the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Northern Iowa.