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.