Laura Pena was born and raised in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.  She began playing the violin at age 5.

Mrs. Pena competed on violin and viola in several competitions including All State in 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, and 2001.   She began her studies for her Bachelor’s in Music Performance at Kent State University in 2003.  She went on to pursue her Master’s Degree in Music Performance at Kent State, graduating in 2009.

Mrs. Pena moved to Odessa, Texas in 2010, beginning her teaching career as Orchestra Director at Nimitz Middle School.  She met her future husband there and got married in 2013.  Both of them left and started teaching at Compass Academy around 2016.  This is her 14th year of teaching in the state of Texas, and she is VERY excited to be a part of the Milam family!  She enjoys performing with various Symphonies and groups in the area, as well as spending time with her husband and fur babies they have rescued over the years.  In their spare time, they enjoy arts and crafts, as well as reading - where they have a ‘small’ collection of their favorite books at their house.

Performing with orchestra’s, Mrs. St. James was a member of several orchestras including Newark Symphony, Williamsport Symphony, Altoona Symphony, Binghamton Symphony, Firelands Symphony and Mansfield Symphony where she also was the principle of 2nd violin and now, is proud and honored to be working with the West Texas Symphony and Permian String Quartet, being their new principle of 2nd violin. 

Mrs. St. James has toured throughout the United States and abroad, performing in several well-known locations and dignitaries including 400th Anniversary of Jamestown with President Bush attending, Donald Trumps home in Mar-a-Lago for his butterfly ball, Carnegie Hall, the Lincoln Center and also in Columbia performing in Columbia's ‘jewel of architecture’, The Salt Cathedral.

Mrs. St. James holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from University of Delaware where she studied with Xiang Gao. She also holds two Masters; the first from Pennsylvania State University, majoring in music performance, and studied under Max Zorin and James Lyon, and the second masters at Ithaca College, with a double concentration in Suzuki Pedagogy and music performance under Carrie Reuning-Hummel and Calvin Wiersma.

In Mrs. St. James spare time, she loves cooking and trying out new recipes, hiking, reading, spending time with her family and traveling. She currently has a toddler who keeps her very busy, and one day excited for him to learn how to play the violin.