Laura Abbott, MSE

Laura Abbott Founder, Victims’ Rights Arkansas | Cabot, Arkansas Laura Abbott is a victims’ rights policy leader who has built and led statewide victim-serving initiatives in Arkansas, advancing reforms that have reached more than 300,000 students through Healthy Relationship Education and 200,000 victims through Laura's Card. A survivor of a near-fatal vehicular assault, she has spent the past decade advancing policies that strengthen protections, expand access to victims’ rights, and improve accountability. Since 2015, Abbott has partnered with the Arkansas General Assembly to develop and implement legislation establishing the statewide victims’ rights card (“Laura’s Card”), expanding victim-centered prosecution, implementing lethality assessments, and requiring healthy relationship education in public schools. She has also contributed to legislation addressing human trafficking, victims’ rights enforcement, and the right of victims to be heard. Abbott led the statewide development and distribution of approximately 200,000 Laura’s Cards and has worked directly with victims to improve understanding and access to their rights. She has also trained survivors to provide effective legislative testimony, strengthening victim participation in public policy. She serves by gubernatorial appointment on the Arkansas Commission on Child Abuse, Rape and Domestic Violence and the Arkansas Crime Victims Reparations Board. Her national service includes work with the National Organization for Victim Advocacy and the National Crime Victim Law Institute. Abbott has received national recognition, including the U.S. Department of Justice Office for Victims of Crime National Crime Victims’ Service Award (2019) and the National Parents of Murdered Children John W. Gillis Award (2024). A veteran educator of more than 35 years and Arkansas Health Educator of the Year (2014), she founded Victims’ Rights Arkansas, a volunteer non profit providing advocacy, education, and resources to crime victims for more than a decade.