Founder and CEO of Diversity in Leadership Institute
Los Angeles, CA

Dr. McGowan-Robinson began the work of mentoring and retaining diverse school leaders while serving in the role of Senior Vice President of Regional Advocacy and later as Chief Operating Officer at the California Charter Schools Association, which later spun off the Diversity in Leadership Institute into its own 501(c)3. Before serving as the group's COO, McGowan-Robinson founded and served as Executive Director of Crown Preparatory Academy, a middle school in South Los Angeles, which is now part of the STEM Prep Schools network. A lifelong educator, McGowan-Robinson began her teaching career as a Chicago Public Schools teacher before moving west and becoming a high school English teacher and literacy coach with the Los Angeles Unified School District.

The mission to support Black and Latinx people to become school leaders is the culmination of a dream that began on a field in Mississippi before McGowan-Robinson was even born. Named after her grandmother, Laura Woodley, who had to drop out of school in the 6th grade to pick cotton, clean the homes of white people, and help care for her siblings after her mother's untimely death,  McGowan-Robinson's family preached the value of education. Though her grandparents never finished school, McGowan-Robinson's grandmother was a voracious reader and natural teacher and was the catalyst for her granddaughter's career in education. In 2010, McGowan-Robinson founded a school in her grandmother’s honor (Laura means "crown"), and today, she continues her mission to help Black and Latinx children succeed, both in and out of the classroom.