Laura Ansley is the director of publications at the AHA. She joined the AHA as managing editor in September 2019, and was promoted to senior managing editor in 2023 and director in 2025. She oversees the American Historical Review, Perspectives on History, and other projects. Laura is also staff liaison to the AHA Council’s Research Division and the Ad Hoc Committee on Artificial Intelligence in Historical Research and Publications. With AHA colleagues, she co-edited a new edition of the AHA’s Careers for History Majors (2026) and Designing Introductory History Courses for Student Success (2024).
Previously, Laura worked at the American Society of Civil Engineers as a journals production editor and was an editorial apprentice at the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture. From 2017 to 2022, she volunteered as managing editor of Nursing Clio, a website focusing on histories of gender and medicine. In 2025, she served on the editorial collective that published The Nursing Clio Reader: Histories of Sex, Reproduction, and Justice (Rutgers Univ. Press). She holds an MA in history from William & Mary and a BA in history and American studies from Case Western Reserve University.
Laura currenly serves on the Society for Scholarly Publishing’s Membership Committee. From 2022–24, she was co-facilitator of the Humanities and Social Sciences Publishing Professionals community of interest for the Society of Scholarly Publishing. In 2022, she received a Next Step Grant from the Association of University Presses.
Laura’s ORCID is https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0160-0190.