Laura Doherty has served as President and CEO of the Baltimore Curriculum Project (BCP) since 2012. BCP operates 6 schools serving over 3,000 students as conversion charter schools. In 2026, BCP celebrated its 30^th anniversary and the 30^th year of using Direct Instruction programs.

Laura became interested in Direct Instruction while she was a graduate student at the University of Oregon. In 1994, she began teaching Direct Instruction programs to middle school students in Chicago Public Schools while doing research for her graduate work. She then served as Headmaster and teacher at the Laikipia Baraka School in Kenya, Africa. This innovative boarding-school served at-risk middle school boys from Baltimore, MD, and featured extensive use of Direct Instruction programs.

As a Program Director for the National Institute for Direct Instruction, Laura worked for twelve years leading and managing all aspects of DI implementations in several Baltimore City Schools. Additionally, Laura worked for many years as a Direct Instruction trainer at the Eugene Direct Instruction conference. She has trained both new and experienced Direct Instruction teachers around the country in reading, math, comprehension, writing, and coaching.

Laura became interested in teaching at an early age. Her mother was an extremely effective special education teacher who taught Laura two important lessons: 1. use good teaching tools, and 2. know how to get your students motivated. In fact, her mother used an early draft of Corrective Reading to teach middle school students during summer school. Laura is the second of three generations of DI teachers in her family as her daughter, Riley, teaches Direct Instruction Reading programs to her 5^th grade students at the mighty Frederick Elementary School in Baltimore.

Dr. Zach Groshell is a leading voice in the science of learning, and a fierce proponent of Direct Instruction (DI). Zach is the author of Just Tell Them: The Power of Explanations and Explicit Teaching, and most recently co-authored a forthcoming book for parents with Dr. Marcy Stein, Teach Your Child Foundational Math in 100 Easy Lessons. He publishes widely read analyses on evidence-informed teaching on his website, Substack, and in numerous publications, including Nathaniel Swain’s Harnessing the Science of Learning. Zach hosts the Direct Instruction Podcast and the Progressively Incorrect Podcast, where he interviews leading experts in education and learning science.