“Only when you are aligned with your truth can you live the life you most desire.”
Overview
Laurel’s speaking style is dynamic, multifaceted and often extemporaneous. She enjoys establishing heartfelt engagement with her audience. Her approach is a creative one, grounded in a career as a lawyer and empowerment expert, she connects the dots in new and different ways for her audience between topics such as grief and self love.
Talk: Turning Pain into Purpose
Her talk “Turning Pain into Purpose” is based on her own experience surviving the tragic loss of her 18 year old son to suicide. This is for anyone who has endured difficulties, including grieving a loss, and is looking for inspiration on how to move forward. During this talk audiences will learn:
Details of Laurel’s two year healing journey, including surviving a potentially life altering medical diagnosis simultaneous with her son’s passing
How she transformed her devastating grief into a portal for excavating and healing pain connected with other trauma wounds from her past.
What she learned and how she applied that to arrive at a deeper sense of self love and self acceptance than she could have imagined.
On May 12, 2024 we turned our collective pain into purpose by celebrating Patrick's life on what would have been his 20th birthday by hiking the Canal Shores trail where we volunteer and have a bench and chess table in his honor. This is drone footage of the even where we raised $13,000 to provide emotional support animals for Paws for Patrick.
Background Experience:
Laurel’s focus on being willing and brave enough to examine the pain from our past as a portal to understanding our deepest truths is rooted in her nearly two decades experience as a public interest lawyer where she often played the role of David to Goliath in pursuing justice for communities whose water sources were being polluted.
During her career as an advocate and lawyer she spent a decade inspiring hundreds with her keynotes, workshops, and trainings that focused on self empowerment and speaking the truth as the key to leading a mission focused organization to have the greatest impact.
She has delivered keynote addresses as well as spoken at numerous national social impact conferences, including Independent Sector, the Council on Foundations and Board Source. Thoursands of non-profit and government leaders have attended her trainings and talks. From 2010-2012, Laurel developed a national model in Illinois for nonprofit contracting reform and also spearheaded a national initiative to engage more philanthropic leaders in advocacy. She is a motivating, convincing and agile adept at thinking on her feet and speaking extemporaneously. In 2011 she debated the Mayor of Savannah, Georgia and won. She has briefed and lobbied members of Congress on various issues from the environment to philanthropy and tax laws. Throughout her career Laurel has been interviewed and appeared in national and local media, including tv, radio and print.
As a former lawyer whose adult life has been punctuated by grief in the form of has undergone numerous career and life transitions, Laurel is adept at motivating audiences to connect with their truth and to shift their perception of change. Her approach is both pragmatic and soulful with a touch of the mystical.
To inquire about hiring Laurel to speak at your next conference or gathering you may fill out this form.
