Laura Thomas, a graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill and Brown University, is the founder and CEO of Effective to Great Education, an education technology startup developing social-emotional learning tools geared for our most vulnerable students. Her upbringing within an education-focused, southern Black American family fostered an early interest in developing habits that would enable her to build and maintain academic achievement and strengthen her self-identity. Laura’s driven interest in performance, intrapersonal, and interpersonal development cultivated her life-long mission to support black and brown kids from underserved communities as a mentor, program designer, and educational enrichment educator.

Laura has also cultivated a 10+ year-long career as a management consultant. She specializes in the practice of strategy, project management, change management, organizational development, and emotional intelligence for diverse industries and sectors.