Laura is considered a leading worldwide expert in how to teach listening skills.  In addition to her background in Academia, Laura is a dynamic trainer, speaker, and business consultant.  Many are most surprised that Laura was the President of the International Listening Association (yes, it does exist!), and she is a Certified Listening Professional.

 

Laura focuses on listening within the context of business communication, Though her work is informed by a PhD in Communication and an MBA, and supported by the most recent research, her approach is very practical, other-oriented, and results driven.

 

She works equally well in coaching individuals and working with groups, and her focus is first to help individuals understand how they are using their brains while listening to identify strengths and blind spots, and secondly, to align communication in groups so that everyone is looking at the same goal at the same time and have a shared understanding of what needs to be done to get there. She has experience in both corporate and nonprofit settings.

 

Laura spent 16 years at Rockhurst University, and retired early from the Helzberg School of Business, Influence, and Information Analytics. She is now a Professor Emerita. Laura was a millennial before they were born, as prior to academia, Laura had another career as a human resource director in the hospitality industry on the east coast. She was both a hotel HR director, as well as the Corporate Director of Human Resources.

 

She is a Cat Socializer at Wayside Waifs, which she considers the best volunteer job in the world as she gets to play with kittens and have cats fall asleep in her lap! She was a foster failure and resides in Brookside with her cat, George, and her partner.