Nursing books stacked on her desk have started to line the shelves above.
Above her desk, a calendar on the wall keeps her up-to-date.
But one image stands out.
A photo of a ballerina in a pink tutu,
displayed in an office that now showcases Laura Bulatao’s love for nursing, reminds her of the love for dance she had as a ballerina.
Bulatao joined the El Camino College Nursing Department as a full-time professor in fall 2025 bringing both professional and personal experiences with her to continue to strengthen the program and support students.
“Opportunities like that don’t always come up. So I just went for it,” she said.
During this fall semester she teaches Nursing Pharmacology, Nursing Skills Practicum and Inter Med-Surg I and II.
Before starting her new role, Bulatao led and assisted in clinicals for ECC students in fall 2024 and in spring 2025 at local hospitals.
She is a nursing practitioner with a specialty in family medicine and began working full-time in family medicine in 2024.
She spent close to eight years working as a bedside nurse, primarily at Providence Little Company of Mary Medical Center.
“I didn’t want to leave Providence, it’s my little family, but the only way we grow is to take a leap,” Bulatao said.
Even though Bulatao grew up in Fair Haven, New Jersey, she began her journey at ECC, earning her associates degree in 2018 before going on to complete her bachelor’s in 2020 and master’s in 2023 in nursing at Chamberlain University in Chicago, Illinois.
Long before she stepped into healthcare, teaching was always in Laura’s back pocket as she taught private piano lessons for about 15 years.
“I’ve always loved teaching, that’s just something that I always felt like was natural for me,” Bulatao said.
Outside of nursing, she enjoys the arts and to exercise in her free time.
During her time at ECC, she took a dance class taught by full-time dance professor Daniel Berney.
“If I could take that class again, that would be so much fun,” she said.
Bulatao also has a love for animals.
She and her husband care for three dogs — two five-year-old German lab husky brothers that they adopted during the pandemic.
One of the brothers is deaf, and the other has a behavioral issue.
Bulatao added the dogs are both “spoiled rotten, as they should be.”
Her third dog is a younger three-year-old “little” pup that was found in a Target parking lot and brought to her by her friend.
“I didn’t ask my husband, he was furious and I said just bring her over… and of course her loves her the most now,” Bulatao said.
“It builds our faculty up to its maximum so we can teach our students, all of our instructors were kind of on overload trying to teach all of the classes,” Robbie Lee, nursing director and dean of Healthcare Sciences, said.
Lee added that a second full-time hire will fill the second missing spot in spring 2025 and the department does not plan to add to the faculty at this time until possibly next fall.
Lee and Bulatao have a familiar history together as Lee was once her professor during her introduction to nursing classes at ECC.
“I remember when she was brand new and she was in my class and didn’t know what a syringe was… so it’s really great to see her get all the way,” Lee said.
Over time, she would later help to mentor Lee’s nursing students during their clinicals.
As she settles into her sixth week in her new role, Bulatao adds that her biggest challenges are to adapt to activities and lessons while also meeting the wide range of student needs and adjusting to the college’s culture and expectations.
“I want every student to succeed and it’s challenging ’cause everyone has so many different learning abilities and needs and you’re worried if you’re delivering the message properly or efficiently,” Bulatao said.
Lee described Bulatao as detail-oriented and attentive to both patient care and student needs.
“Those are all great qualities and everything we need as a nursing instructor,” Lee said.
Although they’re still getting to know her, students enjoy how interactive and collaborative her class and lectures are.
“We’re all kind of teaching each other and being interactive with it [the lesson material]… I think that’s pretty cool how she does that,” nursing major Sarah Espinosa, 22, said.
Espinosa looks forward to learning how to apply Bulatao’s teachings in the classroom and how they will apply to hospital clinicals.
“I look forward to her teaching us how these medications work with each other and possible scenarios with actual patients,” Espinosa said.
Editor’s Note: This story was updated Oct.8 to add additional photos.
