Laura Birmingham is an Associate Research Director with Emergo by UL’s Human Factors Research & Design (HFR&D) team. She has been with the team since 2011 and has extensive experience delivering human factors engineering (HFE) services to the medical device, pharmaceutical, and laboratory equipment industries. Birmingham leads and oversees usability testing throughout the development process, including early-stage formative evaluations through HF validation testing that aligns with regulatory expectations. Furthermore, she helps clients develop key HFE documents, such as HFE reports, and advises clients on how to apply HFE during product development to meet regulators’ expectations. Birmingham is a co-author of Writing Human Factors Plans & Reports for Medical Technology Development and holds a B.S. in Engineering Psychology from Tufts University.