Speaking
Talks that don’t evaporate by lunch.
Keynotes and workshops for school and district leaders, education and EdTech teams, and the event organizers who are tired of booking the same motivational fog. Real conditions. Useful, uncomfortable, and built to stick.
The talks
Three keynotes. One throughline.
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.
Bring this to your eventYou 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).
Bring this to your eventThe 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).
Bring this to your eventTrack record
I didn’t start last year.
First national conference in 2007. Still at it… across ed tech, leadership, equity, and corporate rooms.
I also served on the board of CUE, now CALIE, from 2020 to 2026. Four of those years as Board President. Same organization whose stages I’ve been standing on since the beginning, which means I’ve seen this work from in front of the room and from behind it.
What people say
I’ve had the enormous privilege of working with Laura Spencer as an event organizer and association leader for years, and she is a presenter whom I can always depend on. She has led many sessions at our conferences and delivered opening remarks to rooms of educators from across the nation, and every time she brings the same clarity and warmth that made her such an impactful leader during her six years on the CALIE board.
Educators leave her sessions with something they can use the following week, and they tend to seek her out afterward to keep the learning going beyond the event. I’d recommend her to any organization looking for a speaker who can open an event with energy and deliver professional learning that moves and inspires attendees to lead change.
Watch me speak
Hear me before you book me.
Let’s get it on the calendar.
Tell me about your event and the room you’re trying to move. I’ll tell you straight whether I’m the right fit.