Laura Rose
Laura Rose is Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of the nonprofit Greenheart International, a nonprofit organization that has facilitated the cultural exchange experiences of more than 150,000 participants from 85 countries while also supporting fair trade artisans from numerous developing nations through the Greenheart Shop.
Laura’s personal mission is to create global leaders through providing opportunities to young people from around the world to recognize their ability to positively impact the world through leadership training, empowering them to be change-makers within society.
Under Laura’s leadership, service-learning grants at Greenheart have been provided to more than 100 young people from more than 25 countries to help overcome daunting challenges in their home countries. Grant recipients learn to recognize the positive impact that they as individuals can have on their on their home communities undertaking projects from providing drinking water to school children in rural Colombia, to building playgrounds for toddlers in Jamaica, to the creation of literacy programs in Georgia, and computer training for children in Uganda.
To help young people to articulate the scope of their experiences, Laura provides public speaking workshops to international students and assists them in preparing presentations on the impact of their cultural exchange experiences to members of the Department of State in Washington, DC.
Laura has worked extensively in a voluntary capacity with members of the U.S. Department of State, the Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs, community leaders and international representatives to further the causes of public diplomacy and mutual understanding
She has served on numerous boards in Spain, the U.S. and the UK, recently completing a three year term as Vice Chair of the board of the Council on Standards for International Education and Travel in Alexandria, VA. She also recently served two terms as Vice Chair for the board of the Alliance for International Exchange based in Washington, DC. Both associations are dedicated to promoting and preserving the value of cultural exchange as a tool for public diplomacy.
As an experienced public speaker, Laura facilitates public speaking workshops and has been a panelist and speaker in numerous forums. In fall of 2018, she moderated a panel on the #MeToo Movement at an Alliance Conference in Washington DC. In November 2018, she was a panelist on Privilege and Purpose: Healing Our Collective Conscience at the Purpose Summit in San Francisco.