Dr. Laura Bechard attended Erskine College in Due West, South Carolina, where she graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Biology and a minor in music in 2004.  She then moved on to graduate school in the Department of Genetics at the University of Georgia, where she received a PhD in Genetics in 2010.  While pursuing her PhD, she worked in the field of telomere dynamics, with a focus on how telomeres relate to cancer.  After receiving her PhD, she moved to Nashville, where she spent 4 years as a Postdoctoral Fellow at Vanderbilt University, continuing her studies on telomeres.  She has worked at Cumberland University since 2014, where she teaches several biology courses and is conducting research on the skin microbiome. Dr. Bechard currently serves as President of the Faculty Senate.