Laureen grew up as the daughter of a Foreign Service Officer. She enjoyed a childhood living abroad for 5 years in Germany and 3 in Vietnam before returning to Washington, D.C. to complete junior and senior high school. In 1969, after graduating in history from Wheaton College, she married Wolfgang and they began a two-year Peace Corps term in St. Lucia. One day on the beach, Jojo Jausserin, a French Canadian living in St. Lucia and flying the banana spray planes, taught Laureen to do her first headstand and shoulderstand.

When they returned to the Boston area, Laureen began a graduate program in painting at Boston University and Wolfgang began graduate school in physics at Brandeis University. It was at Brandeis, in the weight room of the Athletics Department, that they began taking formal yoga classes. The instructor had long hair, lit a candle, and passed out recipes for brown rice. The world of yoga was immediately compelling.

Eventually Laureen found her way to Iyengar yoga classes with Karin Stephin who, along with Patricia Walden, founded the BKS Iyengar Yoga Center in Somerville, MA. Laureen was immediately drawn to the subtle attention to detail, precision, and intelligence of the Iyengar method. Eventually Laureen became a student of Patricia Walden, under whom she completed her teacher training program. She is now certified at the Junior I level and continues to study with and assist Patricia. She has had the privilege of studying with BKS Iyengar and his daughter Geeta on the occasions of their visits to the U.S., as well as with other senior Iyengar teachers.

Laureen has been teaching classes in the Boston area for over 30 years – YMCA, Wellbridge, Gold's Gym, Boston Public Schools, Abbott Center, Foxhill Retirement Community, Fitness Etc, as well as at her own studio in the Emmanuel Church, West Roxbury. In addition, she has led retreats on Cape Cod, and in New Hampshire and Dominica (West Indies). She enjoys sharing this ancient system of health and well-being with people of all ages and abilities. Laureen incorporates the qualities of firmness and softness into her teaching that she finds so inspiring in her own teachers.