MEET LAURA

For the past five years, she’s proven to be a responsive member of the Santa Barbara School Board who has made an impact during challenging times. She was the top vote-getter in the 2020 school board election, receiving broad support from voters from Isla Vista, Goleta, Santa Barbara and Montecito. 

 

Laura’s parents moved to the area when her father became a professor at UCSB.  She was born in Cottage Hospital and spent her early years in Goleta before her family moved to Santa Barbara.  Laura is a graduate of our public schools. Her mother worked as a school nurse and taught at SBCC.  Laura holds a Masters with Distinction from the London School of Economics and a Bachelor of Arts with Distinction in History from UC Berkeley.

 

For the past 25 years, Laura’s work has been about forging a more environmentally sustainable future, combatting poverty, fighting for immigration reform, and economic justice for all people.  She began her career in government and public service in the Clinton White House, working first as an aide to White House Senior Advisor George Stephanopoulos and then as a speechwriter for President Clinton. She was Senator Ted Kennedy’s Communications Director in the U.S. Senate and was a senior aide on John Kerry’s presidential campaign. 

 

For nearly 15 years, Laura has worked with national non-profit organizations, building a reputation as a respected advocate for environmental conservation and climate issues through senior positions at Ocean Conservancy and climate non-profit founded and chaired by Vice President Al Gore. Recently she has devoted much of her work to ending poverty in California with advocacy and outreach on the Earned Income Tax Credit, the strongest tool to alleviate poverty especially among working mothers.  She currently runs her own Public Affairs firm called Capstone, helping clients such as The Ocean Cleanup advance their causes. 

 

Excited to share her knowledge and experience, Laura has taught college courses on Congress and politics at the University of California Washington Center.  She served as UC Berkeley's Director of Government Affairs, representing the campus both on the federal and state level.  She served multiple terms on the UC Berkeley Foundation Board of Trustees.