Laura Barron
Director, We Imagine
Laura Barron is a lifelong educator, performer, writer and social activist committed to cultivating creative confidence, collaboration skills, and self-knowledge through experiential, arts-infused learning. For thirty years, she also enjoyed an international career as a touring flutist, highlights of which include her solo appearance with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and several performances at Carnegie Hall. With a doctorate from McGill and ten years of full-time university teaching experience, she is passionate about translating the mastery cultivated in her creative and educational pursuits for learners from a variety of disciplines. Her powerful facilitation has found relevance and resonance in a wide range of communities. These include non-profit boards; social entrepreneurs; corporate executive teams; students at University of British Columbia, Michigan, Colorado, and many other post-secondary institutions internationally; as well as at-risk youth in India, Nepal, Zambia and Colombia. A Diversity and Inclusion Influencer, certified by the Canadian Centre for Diversity and Inclusion, as well as Anima Leadership, Laura brings an equity lens to her deeply intentional approach to facilitation. All of Laura’s socially impactful initiatives are designed to empower participants to become instruments of change in their own lives. She has always strived for relevance in her work, and now harnesses her experience as a performer and teacher in her current role as the founder and Executive Director of Instruments of Change. This Vancouver-based non-profit leads numerous arts-based community development initiatives for youth to seniors, in schools, community centres and prisons.
As a facilitator, Laura acts as catalyst, coach, and conductor, using the expressive capacity, sensitive listening skills, and well-honed collaborative abilities she developed as an elite musician, to “synchronize the group participants, ultimately guiding the use of their instruments toward the desired result – a harmonized expression of their complex interactions, creativity, and expertise. As she guides participants, a system is organically created where she helps every individual agree upon working norms. In this way, she enables each person to create something greater than themselves.” (conductor metaphor from sessionlab.com)
Clients include:
UBC Sauder School of Business MBA Program
Southhill Community Birth Program’s Foundation board
THNK School of Creative Leadership
Arctos & Bird (Hospitality team at Juniper Hotel, Banff)
City of Richmond, BC – Imagine Richmond initiative
United Aboriginal Youth Collective
VCC School of Hospitality Management
Vancouver’s West End Creative Community Plan
Grandview Terrace Day Care Strategic Planning Retreat
Richmond School District Teachers
BC Teachers Federation
Universities of: Oregon; Canterbury, NZ; Wisconsin- Madison; Northern Arizona; SFU
McGill University
Eastman School of Music
Ngoma Dolce School of Music Faculty, Zambia
Bogata Secondary School Teachers, Colombia