Laura bAiley

Affiliate Senior Consultant

Laura is committed to unleashing the potential that lies in most teams and to supporting leaders as they untangle the obstacles in their path.  Her journey in service of communities and teams seeking to move towards resilience and peace has taught her that she is most content when working at the intersection of differing perspectives, happiest when she is asked to listen, query, and hold space for conversations that may feel difficult, because her heart knows that’s where learning happens.

Laura left the World Bank in 2019 after decades working on the policy and operational front-lines of countries wracked by conflict, violence, and state and social fragility, with a global career spanning five regions and more than three dozen countries.  While she spent a daunting amount of time supporting high-profile multilateral partnerships at the lofty HQ level in New York and Washington DC, and led country teams with development investment portfolios of hundreds of millions of dollars, her most cherished experiences are support to dedicated and compassionate leaders as they work with their communities to create new solutions that transcend old divisions.

Laura’s path into international development and adaptive leadership has been a twisty one, winding through milestones as a community organizer, daycare assistant, bartender, medical billing clerk, and technical writer.  She conquered  her fierce disdain for economics as a Pomona College undergraduate to complete a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology & Public Policy, and four years later found the inflection point she sought in the Master in Public Policy program at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.  At HKS, her exposure to adaptive leadership and interest-based negotiation laid the groundwork for her enduring commitment to dialogue. Her early years in the California high-tech economy, her post-HKS focus on capacity-building with national institutions and non-profits in the Global South, and her natural inclination towards a nomadic life have enriched her ability to facilitate difficult and diverse conversations, a skillset enhanced by a certificate in Facilitation from the Georgetown University Institute for Transformational Leadership.