Lara graduated from the University of Sydney in 2004 and initially worked in feline and general small animal practice in Brisbane and Canberra. Lara completed an International Cat Care sponsored residency in small animal medicine at the University of Bristol, UK and then returned home to Australia in 2013 to work as a specialist at the University Veterinary Teaching Hospital, Sydney. Lara is both a European College of Veterinary Internal Medicine Specialist in Small Animal Medicine and an Australian and New Zealand College of Veterinary Scientists Fellow in Feline Medicine. In 2018 she became a senior lecturer in small animal medicine at the University of Sydney.