Laura E. Bedard began her work in corrections as a jail administrator in 1984. She has served on the administrative faculty for the College of Criminology at Florida State University for 17 years. During her tenure at the University, she ran a study abroad program in the Czech Republic lecturing on crime topics in an emerging democracy.

In 2005, she became the First female Deputy Secretary of the Florida Department of Corrections. There she was responsible for 27,000 state employees and over 200,000 offenders in the third largest correctional system in the country.

Dr. Bedard has published and lectured world wide on a number of corrections related topics including women in prison, mental health issues and correctional leadership. Dr. Bedard is currently serving as the Assistant Warden of Programs for Corrections Corporation of America Gadsden Correctional Institution. There she is responsible for education, vocational training, medical and mental health services at this 1,500 bed female facility.