Laura has held leadership roles with a demonstrated impact in corporate technology, K-12 education, higher education, and the non-profit sector. She now works as a consultant and serves a variety of clients nationally. Laura leans on over 30 years of diverse experiences to guide her clients through a comprehensive gap analysis and the difficult conversations needed to chart a sustainable path forward. She is known for her ability to synthesize large amounts of information quickly, think strategically, and act tactically to advance organization goals quickly without losing sight of how important the connection of people and organizational culture are to the fulfillment of mission.
Laura is driven by a passion for life-long learning and is continuously looking for opportunities to have an impact by applying knowledge skills and abilities in new ways. Her early experience developing complex systems honed skills required for business analysis, user centered design, and complex problem solving. Managerial experience developed an ability to see a broader context in all aspects of work, effectively plan to reach stated objectives, and develop staff to reach their personal goals. Community, non-profit, board and consultant experience expanded executive skills needed to develop strategic alliances within stakeholder groups, identify key value streams, and collaborate around shared objectives with and without direct authority. Agile training provided insight on how to better structure complex initiatives to engage and empower a cognitively diverse team to support critical transformations. National/State/Regional work reinforced the value of understanding the current (and envisioning the projected) ecosystem(s) impacted by recommended solutions.
Laura worked for 15 years at a Fortune 100 company and was responsible for enterprise software, user centered design and testing, and technology research. When her third child was born, she made a career change to be more present for her children. She was invited to serve as Executive Director of an education foundation for nearly 5 years. During that time, Laura revised the organization’s bylaws and board roles, wrote the organization’s first strategic plan, researched the source of all legacy donations to ensure all bequests were being honored, and transitioned foundation funds to a local Community Foundation for improved oversight. She left the Board with an operating manual to assist them in sustaining operations following her departure and a list of recommendations to support their search for a new Executive Director.
Laura was asked to champion a transformational initiative within the School District of New Berlin as a consultant where she provided leadership and support to strategic planning and continuous improvement efforts, developed corporate relations strategies, and represented the District in local, regional, state, and national efforts to support talent pipeline objectives.
She later served as the first Director of Corporate Relations for MSOE University with the primary objective of aligning corporate and university objectives to form mutually beneficial partnerships. She leaned into National best practice to develop a strategic plan for Industry Relations within the Academics department, revised key communication strategies, and launched an industry advisory council for AI research and education initiatives.
Most recently, she served as the Chief Talent Development Officer for the Milwaukee Tech Coalition where she helped build the organization and assumed primary responsibility for grants and tech talent pipeline strategies.
Laura and her husband have since relocated from the midwest to Southwest Florida. Laura now serves as a consultant for state/regional tech talent initiatives, a mentor for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation’s Talent Pipeline Management program, and an Interim Executive Director with the support of Interim Executive Solutions to assist with ED succession planning.
Laura holds a degree in the Management of Computer Systems and an MBA with a focus on leadership studies and a wide variety of certifications which demonstrate her commitment to life-long learning. She continues to give back by volunteering her time on a wide variety of non-profit Boards.
LinkedIn: Laura Schmidt