Certified Levin Life Coach
Two years of training with Nancy Levin through the Levin Life Coach Academy. Certified in the Reinvention, Worthy, and Boundaries frameworks and in group coaching.
About Laura
I have had three careers. The third one started with the worst year of my life.
Twelve years in hospitality, eighteen years in philanthropy, then a loss that rearranged everything, followed by coaching certifications and a practice built out of what I learned.
My story
I knew, as an adult, that the deaths I lived through as a child had left a mark. What I did not understand was the through line, and how much those events were still quietly steering my daily decisions.
I had a good marriage. My husband and I shared a great deal of joy and some heartache. And through all of it I could never quite let myself believe I deserved any of it. I was always waiting for the other shoe to fall.
After he died I found Nancy Levin and her coaching frameworks, and I went through the process myself. That is where I finally named the three beliefs I had been carrying since I was a girl: I am broken, I am a disappointment, I am helpless. I could see the stories I had built around each one, and why a child would need them, and I could see that none of them held up against my actual adult life.
So I named new ones. I am whole. I am proud of me. I am in control.
They had been in me the whole time. They were just sitting in the unconscious where I could not reach them. Once they were conscious I could hold the both/and instead of the either/or. I am broken and I am whole. I am a disappointment and I am proud. I am helpless and I am in control.
Naming them was not the end of it. I had to take actions to make the new beliefs stick, and the actions were small, bite-sized, achievable, and repeated until they became how I actually think.
I did not sign on with Nancy to become a coach. I signed on to learn about me. I was at a crossroads and I knew I would be stuck there forever if I stopped. What I found was more than I expected, and for the first time in my life I can say honestly that I am proud of myself, the work I do, and what I have built.
My own transformation is why I became a coach.
How I work
Everyone starts with the same framework.
I walk you through the same steps and equip you with the same tools. But every single person takes their own action, beautifully aligned with their unique vision.
Everyone experiences change in their own way. I do not give advice, because you are the expert on your own life and I am not. I ask what, where, how, and when, until you get somewhere new. Then we decide together the actions you are going to do to reinforce the change, and the following session I ask whether you did it. I hold you accountable for the change you want in your life.
Certifications
Certified Grief Educator
David Kessler and Grief.com, a twelve-week training covering the foundations of grief, how to be with others in loss, guilt, integration and meaning, specific kinds of loss, and how to lead groups.
Eighteen years on the funding side
Before any of this I spent twelve years in hospitality and eighteen years in philanthropy. I was the executive director of the Community Foundation of the Texas Hill Country and then the program director for the Carl B. and Florence E. King Foundation.
My passion revolves around transformation. I launched my consulting practice to work one-on-one with funders and nonprofits to align staff and boards with their organization's vision for their work, their clients, and their community.
What I bring to the table is a birds-eye view of the nonprofit sector and the role of philanthropy.
Facilitation and board work
Facilitation is the art of guiding organizations through change, conversation, and decision making with clarity and purpose. It is about creating a space where people feel heard, aligned, and able to contribute their best thinking. At its heart it is less about directing than about holding a container for collaboration, helping a group move through tension, find its own solutions, and come out more connected to what it is there to do.
I still do this work, but only by referral now, and I take a small number of engagements a year. If you are looking for a retreat or a facilitated session, that lives here.
Experience, associations, and community
Experience
- RevJen, facilitator delivering the FUEL series of revenue building workshops
- RevJen, facilitator leading R-Squared peer groups and roundtables for nonprofit leaders
- 21/64, certified advisor trained to work with multi-generational families
- Essential Skills and Strategies for New Grantmakers, workshop instructor for those new to the funding world
- Carl B. and Florence E. King Foundation, program director
- Community Foundation of the Texas Hill Country, executive director
Associations
- National Network of Consultants to Grantmakers, member
- The Nonprofit Cooperative, member
- Philanthropy Southwest, session designer, speaker, and trainer
- Council on Foundations, reviewer for National Standards for Community Foundations
Community
- The WARM Place, volunteer facilitator
- Reading Partners of North Texas, volunteer tutor
- Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Gardens, speakers bureau
- Swiss Avenue Historic District, beautification chair, home tour and nominating committees
- Lipscomb Elementary School, site based decision making committee
What people have said
Through her coaching, Laura has given me the confidence to be an effective leader and to chart a course for our future.
Through our work with Laura, we are more confident in evaluating funding requests and are better grantmakers.
I believe in the power of change. Do you?
If any of this sounds like something you want to talk about, the first thirty minutes are free.
From Laura’s camera
