Some career-defining decisions come after months of careful research. For Laura Van Winkle, it started with a LinkedIn pop-up ad.
“A pop-up ad came on LinkedIn that said something about a law degree, but not becoming an attorney,” Van Winkle recalled. “I don’t remember the exact wording, but it caught my eye.”
Coming across this ad and applying to the program is a decision she credits with fundamentally reshaping the trajectory of a career that was already three decades in the making.
Today, Van Winkle serves as Senior Vice President of Human Resources for Adobe Population Health, a care management company based in Phoenix, Ariz., that services 11 states and employs staff across 22. It’s a role she says she simply would not have without Tulane.
Three Decades In, Still Climbing
Van Winkle’s human resources career spans more than 30 years, with the last 25 focused exclusively on healthcare. When she encountered that LinkedIn ad, she was working at UC Davis and looking for a way to advance, but the path forward felt complicated.
In California’s UC system, advancing to senior HR leadership often required a law degree. The problem was that Van Winkle had no desire to become an attorney. She needed another way in.
“I wanted to advance my career, but I didn’t really want to go to earn a JD,” she says. “And I thought, what are my options here?”
The Tulane MJ program answered that question in a way she hadn’t known was possible, offering the legal fluency she needed without requiring her to change professions entirely.
Why California Made Legal Knowledge Non-Negotiable
For HR professionals working in most states, a working knowledge of federal employment law can be sufficient for day-to-day practice. For those working in California, it’s just the starting point.
California has long been a national trendsetter in employment law, consistently enacting employee-friendly protections that exceed federal standards and often foreshadow where the rest of the country is heading. Van Winkle uses the Americans with Disabilities Act as a prime example. Under federal law, individuals using mitigating measures like hearing aids or glasses were historically not considered disabled. California rejected that framework and extended ADA protections far more broadly. Years later, federal law caught up.
Navigating that kind of legal complexity required more than HR instinct. It required the ability to read statutes, interpret case law and translate legal language into clear, actionable policy—skills Van Winkle developed directly through the MJ in Labor & Employment Law program.
“Most people read case law and it reads like stereo instructions,” she said. “With this degree, I read it now and I can translate it to plain English as I’m reading it. And then I have to take that plain language interpretation, create policies on it and communicate that to employees in a way that they understand.”
Immediate and Lasting Career Impact
Van Winkle started the program in January 2018. By February of that same year, she had already accepted a new position at a different organization, in part because of what she was actively studying. She finished her degree in May 2020 and was promoted just two months later, in July 2020.
“This program has just taken my career on an exponential pathway,” she said.
The practical applications were immediate. While working through the program’s labor law curriculum, Van Winkle was simultaneously negotiating two union contracts in the field. She put to work what she was studying in class that very same week.
“How many people go to school and are not able to use what they learn?” she asked. “Have you used algebra in the last 20 years? Probably not. But I’m using this on a day-to-day basis.”
Her capstone project drove that point home even further. She designed a union contract, drawing directly on real-world experience she was living out in parallel.
A Weekend That Stuck
Like all students in the program, Van Winkle attended the Immersion Weekend on Tulane’s campus in New Orleans, an experience she describes as practical, packed and personally meaningful.
“They packed a lot of stuff into a couple of days,” she said. “Very practical. Information I could take back and use in my work.”
The weekend gave her the chance to meet classmates and professors in person, hear from guest speakers and choose from a range of sessions tailored to different professional interests. But perhaps its most lasting value has been the network it helped build. Six years later, Van Winkle and several cohort members still stay in regular contact, bouncing difficult workplace situations off one another and sharing expertise across industries.
“There’s still a group of us that talk on a regular basis,” she says. “We just bounce stuff off each other, and that was six years ago.”
Advice From Someone Who’s Lived It
Van Winkle doesn’t just recommend the online MJ in Labor & Employment Law program, she actively advocates for it. She has referred several people to the program, all of whom have since graduated, including a former employee she encouraged to enroll who finished last year.
Her advice to anyone considering it is simple: reach out to alumni, ask questions and trust what you hear.
“You really can’t go wrong,” she said. “I don’t believe I would be in the role I’m in right now if I did not have this degree.”
Take Your Career to the Next Level With Tulane Law Online
Ready to take the next step?
To find out more about Tulane Law School’s online Master of Jurisprudence in Labor & Employment Law, including course information and admissions requirements, explore our online resources or schedule an appointment with our admissions team to discuss your options in detail.