Rising Stars: Meet Laura Gowans

Today we’d like to introduce you to Laura Gowans.

Hi Laura, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Hello! I’m Laura, the President of SocialHeart. SocialHeart is a volunteer-run nonprofit that brings people together for good causes and a good time. We were founded in 2013 by a group of young Kansas City professionals who wanted to find a way to make fundraising more fun and accessible. We are particularly passionate about helping new and emerging KC charities raise money and awareness. Every other month, we host young professionals’ networking events in exciting venues across the metro and promote a different local charity. Every dollar we raise at these events goes directly to our charity partner. We also host volunteering events every other month that give our board and community a chance to partner with charities needing short-term volunteers, such as packing medical supplies, staffing events, and more! We are 100% led by our volunteer board of directors, passionate about making a difference in Kansas City – and having fun while doing it!

Can you talk to us about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned? Looking back, has it been easy or smooth in retrospect?
When I started volunteering with SocialHeart a little over 5 years ago, I had no idea what I was getting into. All founders had termed out before I joined, so we were slowly rebuilding when Covid hit. For a charity that raises money by throwing in-person events, Covid almost shut us down completely. I had previously served as secretary, and one year later, I was elected president during Covid. We lost most of our board and followers and had to transition to digital events. In short, we had to rebuild from scratch!

For my first few years as president, I ran SocialHeart alone. I had fantastic help and support from volunteers. Still, my board had shrunk to 2, and I was running all events, doing all social media and marketing, organizing and leading board meetings, handling all our taxes and compliance, and recruiting new board members – all of it! In those first few years, we often struggled with poor attendance and frequent turnover on the board. I usually considered giving up – but I’m so glad I didn’t!

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might need to become more familiar with what you do, what can you tell them about what you do?
In my full-time role, I’m proud to serve as the chief operating officer of Leanlab Education, another unique nonprofit based in Kansas City. Our mission is to study and grow transformational education innovations that have been “co-designed” with school communities. To do this, we offer co-designed research between education technology companies and schools. We match parents, learners, and educators with ed-tech developers to inform, develop, and evaluate the next generation of classroom tools. We study how ed-tech tools work in natural classroom environments and connect promising tech solutions with resources to support and accelerate their impact. By doing this, we hope to build a world where all children can access practical and excellent educational solutions.

As COO, I lead all operations at Leanlab, including finance, HR, compliance, and more. Before Leanlab Education, I spent my career in tech startups. I spent nearly 12 years at SpiderOak, a cybersecurity startup that initially built secure B2C backup software and eventually pivoted to selling cybersecurity solutions to the DOD. Our software currently protects satellites in orbit over the US and will likely be on the next mission to the moon. I also worked at a health-tech startup that used machine learning to detect potential neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s by measuring the rate of change of pupils in response to light to help patients get meaningful interventions earlier. If you can’t tell, I love working with companies and organizations making a difference in the world!

Are there any apps, books, podcasts, blogs, or other resources you think our readers should check?
I love reading, and I’m always looking for unique new books! Recently, I’ve been obsessed with The Disappearing Spoon. This nonfiction book tells the story of the periodic table of the elements and 1491, a history of the civilizations that flourished in the Americas before 1491. I recently finished War and Peace (at last!) and devoured the Gideon the Ninth series.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.social-heart.org/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauragowans/
• Other: https://www.leanlabeducation.org/