Laura (Camayd) Bourgeois holds a Masters in Preservation Studies degree from Tulane University. She started her career in non-profit, interning for Dade Heritage Trust in Miami, Florida. She worked for an architectural firm in Bay Harbor Isle and continued her career working for City of Miami Beach as a planner and senior planner assigned to the Design Review Board. In that capacity she was often involved in city wide sea level rise and climate change discussions—particularly as it pertained to adaptive re-use of Art Deco and Mid-Century buildings and looked at new infill guidelines for single-family homes and multi-family buildings. She conducted several research projects and code analysis for how historic building could be retrofitted to respond to sea level rise and solutions for how commercial and multi-family building address the pedestrian level. She often worked with other city departments such as Fire, Building, Structure and Public Works, to address Code issues, historic preservation guidelines, and design review. In 2016 she moved to Texas to work with Texas Historical Commission as a program specialist for the Certified Local Government program (CLG). In this capacity she worked with FEMA and local governments affected by Hurricane Harvey in 2017. She currently works for Galveston Historical Foundation where she oversees covenant monitoring program, Preservation services, and manages architectural projects for the Foundation.