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A master facilitator, Laura helps groups think well together while keeping a sharp focus on achieving meaningful results. Powerful questions, straight talk, and a lively sense of humor help innovators in healthcare, education, and youth development to articulate their goals, move forward, and learn from experience.
Working in deep connection over time, Laura has guided professional firms, school districts, and public benefit organizations through challenging transitions including start up, rapid growth and leadership change. Clients and colleagues value her rigor, clarity and flexibility. In the process of strategy formation, groups acquire practical know-how about leadership, collaboration and organization design.
In addition to her professional experience, Laura has volunteered with schools, mentored young non-profit professionals, and provided Bay Area stewardship for The World Café community. She is a long time yoga practitioner and teaches yoga in Berkeley.
Laura's background includes planning and policy work in health care and internal consulting at Kaiser Permanente. She graduated from Cornell University and UC Berkeley School of Public Health, and completed the Columbia-University of Michigan Advanced Human Resources and Organizational Development Program.
Committed to continuous learning, Laura's current focus is cross-generational partnership and re-enlivening public sector systems.
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"Laura has a unique talent. She truly listens to and quickly synthesizes what the many diverse voices in an organization are saying and needing. Over several months, we have worked with Laura on NAMAC's strategic planning process. She has kept our staff and board focused on moving forward by addressing the main questions and creating action steps. Working with Laura in group dialogues is energizing and useful. She expertly clarifies what is being expressed while energizing people to move forward to achieve long term consensus."
Helen De Michiel, Co-Director
National Alliance for
Media Arts and Culture
"Over a period of more than two years, The Claros Group helped our school district move from (re)design to implementation to breakthrough progress in Special Education. Our conflict time is down, our collaborative time is up, and we are seeing improved data on compliance and relationships. Laura's expert facilitation, understanding of organizational change, and coaching skills have helped us to develop more competent and capable leaders, and a positive culture. The positive results have been sustained."
Leslie Anderson
Senior Director
San Ramon Valley Unified School District
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MORE COMMENTS
"Thanks for another great job! You once again have shown your unique ability to provide Organizational Design and Development services while staying
focused on profitability and cost management. You listen and move into
action. Your designs are efficient and effective. You kept the team
focused, molding ideas into concrete goals and deliverables in a very
tight time frame."
Michael Bush
President and CEO
Tetra Tech Wireless Communications
"Leadership coaching provided me with a safe place to talk about my uncertainties. I have moved from technocrat to leader. The feedback was great-we can't seem to get it on our own. Your insights, action and focus list helped tremendously. I have learned to express myself-not easy for an introvert--and to speak from my heart."
Pansy Kwong, M.D.
Chief of Medicine
The Permanente Medical Group
"Laura brings a great mix of concrete transmissable tools and heart focus. I really appreciate her bias for action. She has the ability to move people from talk to action. I value her tenacity and professionalism and her generosity in sharing tools and building internal capacity through the consulting process."
Kathleen Clanon, MD
Medical Director
Family Care Network
"Laura helped our consulting firm move from start-up into growth mode. She provided tools and resources-such as decision-making models and performance assessment processes-that we easily adapted and immediately implemented. Today, the organization is stronger and as a leader, I am more confident and able to provide vision for our group, thanks to Laura's coaching and mentorship.
I enjoy working with Laura because she is a delight to be around: energetic, enthusiastic, intelligent, and compassionate, with a sense of humor to boot."
Steven LaFrance
Principal
LFA, LLc
"Laura has been our thinking partner for over 10 years as we have grown and expanded one nonprofit, and started another. She has a phenomenal ability to listen to our "ramblings" and turn them into goals, strategies and a game plan, to discern where we are going as individuals and as an organization, and to help us weave them together into a seamless whole."
Diana Gordon & Leslie Medine
Executive Directors
On the Move, a program of mentoring and coaching young adults who have made the crucial decision to become change agents in their local and global communities
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"Laura's insights into the role of the leader and the difficult transitions I have been making were particularly helpful, especially at times when I felt really lost. She inspired me, brought me new meaning and understanding into the ways I could actualize myself in my new leadership capacity and helped me find the courage to step up."
David Marton
Director, Health Plan Institute
Kaiser Permanente
"As an executive coach, Laura has a great way of getting past the arm waving. She asks pointed questions and gets past the surface stuff. It opens up a whole set of possibilities for growth. Useful and practical results came out of each of our meetings. They are not only personally valuable, but are supporting the achievement of our business goals."
Ethan Thorman
Director Service Provider Marketing
Cisco Systems
"As a professional colleague and collaborator, Laura has supported my growth as a consultant. She is a compassionate listener, who can deliver a no-nonsense message with impact. She has taught me how to frame conversations for clarity and impact, how to engage the community in a meaningful way and how to keep the perspective needed to stay sane."
Elizabeth Sadlon
Principal
Sadlon & Associates LLC
"Collaborating on large scale strategic planning processes with Laura is always a treat. She holds herself and those who work with her to a high standard for respect, leadership, engagement and dialogue. She brings unique insights, developed through practical understanding of mutiple sectors, organization models, and human nature, which always advance the work to a new level."
Caroline McCall
Principal
Areté Consulting
"Laura has been an invaluable resource to Berkeley Montessori School, working with our Board, administration, faculty and parent community. Her ability to listen to the needs expressed and then organize those needs into an action plan has moved us through difficult deliberations. Often her observations can transform a whole conversation and allow completely new solutions."
Lee Davis
Head of School
Berkeley Montessori School
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