Laurel is a communications expert, advocate, and writer currently based in Washington, D.C.
Laurel was born in Benton, Arkansas - a small town just outside of Little Rock. After moving to Florida in 2006, she attended and graduated magna cum laude from Flagler College in Saint Augustine, with a degree in political science.
Seeking a fresh start after several years in the private sector, she moved to Rhode Island in the summer of 2015, where she first served as Communications Director to Warwick City Councilmember Jeremy Rix’s first election campaign. After a successful election season, she was named Executive Director of the City of Providence’s Human Relations Commission in the spring of 2017. In her time in this role, she oversaw increased collaboration between the Commission and its state-level counterpart, fought to expand access to city services for individuals with limited English proficiency, and standardized guidelines for transgender City employees who chose to transition on-the-job. As part of this role, she also provided staff support for the City’s Equal Pay Task Force.
She relocated to Washington, D.C. to take a position with the National Center for Transgender Equality, where she worked with the communications team on the “Protect Trans Health” and #WontBeErased campaigns, among many others. She has also worked as part of the reproductive freedom movement, as Director of Media Relations for Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio where she served as primary spokesperson for the organization.
Laurel currently serves as a Director of Communications at the Human Rights Campaign, where she proudly fights for queer and trans liberation.
Laurel enjoys reading political memoirs, tinkering with her gaming PC, and dabbling in creative writing now and again. In her free time, she’s probably putting together Lego.