Wake Forest University

Shifting a framework requires drawing outside the lines.

Atlanta, Georgia

Lab Atlanta, Inc. is a newly formed nonprofit organization established to build upon the success of the Lab Atlanta 10th grade semester school model piloted by The Lovett School from January 2017-May 2019. Lab Atlanta, Inc. embraces the mission of the pilot model to "develop civically engaged, design minded leaders focused on building a vibrant, sustainable future for themselves and the city of Atlanta" but now operates as its own brand in partnership with numerous organizations including Georgia Tech and Georgia State universities. The organizing board, chaired by Lauren Koonz, CEO of the Metro Atlanta YMCA,  is a working board charged with expanding the scope and reach of the brand while staying mission-centric and insuring long term sustainability. Laura Deisley, founder and executive director of the pilot model, serves as a board member and President and CEO of the new organization.

Lab Atlanta, Inc.

President and CEO

Walker Deisley Strategic Consulting Inc.

Managing Consultant

Atlanta K12 Design Challenge (AK12DC) is a partnership between Westminster School's Center for Teaching (CFT), The Lovett School's Reimagine:ED , and Fulton County Schools to develop design thinking and innovating skills within and across schools. Laura Deisley of The Lovett School, Bob Ryshke of the CFT, and Korynn Schooley of the FCS central office co-designed and lead the work in collaboration with Scott Sanchez, VP of Innovation at First Data Corporation and faculty member of the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford University. Faculty teams from area schools engage in year long professional development cohorts from sending schools to learn and apply design thinking and facilitative leadership skills as they consider strategic challenges at the schoolhouse level. <a href="http://www.atlantak12designchallenge.org">www.atlantak12designchallenge.org</a>

Atlanta K12 Design Challenge

Co-Founder and Leadership Planning Partner

Reimagine:Ed is a design and educational initiative by The Lovett School focused on creatvity, innovation, entrepreneurship, and the future of learning.

Reimagine-Ed

Co-Founder

In January 2017, The Lovett School will open doors in midtown Atlanta to a new school model.  Lab Atlanta  will offer an immersive, semester-long, academic and design program that will challenge up to 30 honors-level high school sophomores from Atlanta-area public and independent schools. They will discover, design, and take action as they work toward a sustainable future for Atlanta. Built on the premise that students across Atlanta know relatively little about each other, the city, and the diverse and complex nature of its people and its challenges, Lab Atlanta  will take students away from their home schools for the semester, bringing them into the city to learn together—and to uncover, perhaps for the first time, their capacity to work together to effect change. Grounded in an honors-level academic environment, students will be challenged to research, think, argue, and defend, and to write and create other models reflecting their understandings—all within the context of Atlanta and in relationship to other great cities around the world. Students will go deeper in their learning than ever before and, with an integrated interdisciplinary curriculum, build a systemic understanding of the world around them.  They will also begin to move beyond the disciplines and develop a design mindset, learning to approach challenges with the skills and habits of innovators and entrepreneurs—with special emphasis on developing an empathic, human-centered lens.

LAB ATL: Lab Atlanta

Creator and Founding Director

In this newly established role I translate my consulting work to a specific school context. I work with administrators, faculty and students to consider shifting notions of what it means to be well educated in the 21st century. Networks and strategic partnerships are an integral part of my work alongside strategic planning, professional development, and new practice pilots.

The Lovett School

Director of Strategic Innovation

Strategic Visioning for Education

Worked with a small executive team in start-up phase of a digital media company. Company purchased August House Publishing, a publisher of folk tales and other stories from around the world, with goal of creating interactive engagement around story, reading, and learning for children, families and classrooms. My focus was on evaluating capacity and identifying potential partners to grow brand presence and generate income.

August House

Vice President, Strategic Partnerships

Corporate Banking and Corporate Finance in the Atlanta and Southeast Corporate Divisions.