Keynote speaker · Leadership & learning design
Read the Terrain
Leadership Under Real Conditions
I help leaders build systems that hold up when the ground stops cooperating… not the ones that only look good on a slide. (Anyone can lead on a paved road.)
Leadership · learning design · real systems
I work where leadership theory runs into the messy parts of real organizations. The systems that buckle under their own weight. The quiet failures nobody names until they get expensive. I build the version that survives the room, not the version that impresses it.
Proof, if you want it
California Distinguished School (2023). Marzano HRS Level 3 (2026). California Purple Star School (2026).
Administrator of the Year. San Diego County Top Tech Exec. CUE Gold Disk. Classroom of the Future Innovate Award.
On your stage
What I speak on
Keynotes and workshops for leaders, built for the conditions you actually work in. No motivational fog. The useful, uncomfortable stuff.
Read the Terrain
Leadership Under Real Conditions
Most leaders are trained to act fast. Almost none are trained to read the conditions first. This one’s about the difference… and why the leaders who last are the ones who read the ground before they commit to it.
You Don’t Have a Performance Problem
Look closely at the person who keeps falling short, and you’ll usually find a system that set them up to. We call it accountability. Most of it is weight nobody meant to add, landing on the people least able to set it down. This talk names it (and your best people already feel it).
The Tool Was Never the Decision
Accidental vs. Intentional Design
Every room argues about the tool. Buy it, ban it, mandate it. But the tool was never the real choice… the design around it was. You leave with four questions that cut through the noise, so you stop debating the thing and start designing the decision (you’ll use them by Monday).
Good design isn’t the version that impresses the room. It’s the version that survives it.
Read the Terrain · Substack
Where I think out loud
Essays on leadership, systems, and what the trail keeps teaching me about both. No spam, no funnels. Just the actual thinking.
You Can’t Lead a Cat Like a Dog
Treating people the way I want to be treated only works if they want the same things I do.
Read on SubstackThe Cost of Misplacing Capable People
This is how organizations lose their strongest thinkers without ever losing the person.
Read on SubstackThe Ghost Hours
This is how leadership is dismantled. It isn’t a loud failure in a meeting.
Read on SubstackWhat people say
A sought-after guest keynote… she inspires audiences with insight, warmth, and vision.
When Laura gets involved, I take notice… something impactful is about to happen.
Floored at how the design of your slides invites us to re-arrange how we think about adopting new tech. Like Scandinavian architecture: sparse, with depth and clear purpose.
A few of the stages
- ISTE
- Tech & Learning
- ACSA
- Modern Learning Conference
- The AI Show
- SDCOE
- Saddleback Valley Innovate Summit
- (A partial list. More booked.)
