Laura Groenjes Mitchell
Director of Alliance Learning & Insights at America's Promise Alliance- Claim this Profile
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Bio
Esther Drake
It has been an absolute and total privilege to have Laura on my team. She is such an enthusiastic, rigorous and thoughtful leader of adult learning experiences. Her designs are accessible, welcoming and honoring of all that adults bring to their learning. She is a true partner on any design team who centers participants and welcomes divergent points of view, all in service of driving towards impact and outcomes. Finally, Laura is one of the best facilitators I have worked with over my many years doing this work. I witnessed Laura's facilitation style with numerous audiences and the response was overwhelmingly positive each and every time. Finally, Laura is a wonderful team member; she enthusiastically took on projects, new opportunities and gladly stepped in when a team member needed to tag out. Laura practices what she preaches, meaning she sees every opportunity as a chance for learning and growth. I cannot recommend Laura highly enough and will miss working directly with her.
Jessica Tokayer Rosner
It has truly been a pleasure to work with Laura over the past 4 years. Laura is an expert at adult learning and facilitation. In spaces that she leads, Laura ensures that participants feel comfortable and ready to engage with the content. Laura flawlessly executes learning opportunities in a way that ensures that the overall goals and objectives are met. I had the honor of working alongside Laura to lead multiple cross-functional learning communities. Each time, Laura excelled at setting a compelling vision for the group and investing people in it, managed the project expertly, and communicated regularly and clearly with participants. In addition to all the skills noted already, Laura is a phenomenal person. She approaches people with kindness and empathy and builds strong and authentic relationships across lines of difference. Working with Laura has been a bright spot in my time at Teach For America. Any team would be lucky to have her!
Esther Drake
It has been an absolute and total privilege to have Laura on my team. She is such an enthusiastic, rigorous and thoughtful leader of adult learning experiences. Her designs are accessible, welcoming and honoring of all that adults bring to their learning. She is a true partner on any design team who centers participants and welcomes divergent points of view, all in service of driving towards impact and outcomes. Finally, Laura is one of the best facilitators I have worked with over my many years doing this work. I witnessed Laura's facilitation style with numerous audiences and the response was overwhelmingly positive each and every time. Finally, Laura is a wonderful team member; she enthusiastically took on projects, new opportunities and gladly stepped in when a team member needed to tag out. Laura practices what she preaches, meaning she sees every opportunity as a chance for learning and growth. I cannot recommend Laura highly enough and will miss working directly with her.
Jessica Tokayer Rosner
It has truly been a pleasure to work with Laura over the past 4 years. Laura is an expert at adult learning and facilitation. In spaces that she leads, Laura ensures that participants feel comfortable and ready to engage with the content. Laura flawlessly executes learning opportunities in a way that ensures that the overall goals and objectives are met. I had the honor of working alongside Laura to lead multiple cross-functional learning communities. Each time, Laura excelled at setting a compelling vision for the group and investing people in it, managed the project expertly, and communicated regularly and clearly with participants. In addition to all the skills noted already, Laura is a phenomenal person. She approaches people with kindness and empathy and builds strong and authentic relationships across lines of difference. Working with Laura has been a bright spot in my time at Teach For America. Any team would be lucky to have her!
Esther Drake
It has been an absolute and total privilege to have Laura on my team. She is such an enthusiastic, rigorous and thoughtful leader of adult learning experiences. Her designs are accessible, welcoming and honoring of all that adults bring to their learning. She is a true partner on any design team who centers participants and welcomes divergent points of view, all in service of driving towards impact and outcomes. Finally, Laura is one of the best facilitators I have worked with over my many years doing this work. I witnessed Laura's facilitation style with numerous audiences and the response was overwhelmingly positive each and every time. Finally, Laura is a wonderful team member; she enthusiastically took on projects, new opportunities and gladly stepped in when a team member needed to tag out. Laura practices what she preaches, meaning she sees every opportunity as a chance for learning and growth. I cannot recommend Laura highly enough and will miss working directly with her.
Jessica Tokayer Rosner
It has truly been a pleasure to work with Laura over the past 4 years. Laura is an expert at adult learning and facilitation. In spaces that she leads, Laura ensures that participants feel comfortable and ready to engage with the content. Laura flawlessly executes learning opportunities in a way that ensures that the overall goals and objectives are met. I had the honor of working alongside Laura to lead multiple cross-functional learning communities. Each time, Laura excelled at setting a compelling vision for the group and investing people in it, managed the project expertly, and communicated regularly and clearly with participants. In addition to all the skills noted already, Laura is a phenomenal person. She approaches people with kindness and empathy and builds strong and authentic relationships across lines of difference. Working with Laura has been a bright spot in my time at Teach For America. Any team would be lucky to have her!
Esther Drake
It has been an absolute and total privilege to have Laura on my team. She is such an enthusiastic, rigorous and thoughtful leader of adult learning experiences. Her designs are accessible, welcoming and honoring of all that adults bring to their learning. She is a true partner on any design team who centers participants and welcomes divergent points of view, all in service of driving towards impact and outcomes. Finally, Laura is one of the best facilitators I have worked with over my many years doing this work. I witnessed Laura's facilitation style with numerous audiences and the response was overwhelmingly positive each and every time. Finally, Laura is a wonderful team member; she enthusiastically took on projects, new opportunities and gladly stepped in when a team member needed to tag out. Laura practices what she preaches, meaning she sees every opportunity as a chance for learning and growth. I cannot recommend Laura highly enough and will miss working directly with her.
Jessica Tokayer Rosner
It has truly been a pleasure to work with Laura over the past 4 years. Laura is an expert at adult learning and facilitation. In spaces that she leads, Laura ensures that participants feel comfortable and ready to engage with the content. Laura flawlessly executes learning opportunities in a way that ensures that the overall goals and objectives are met. I had the honor of working alongside Laura to lead multiple cross-functional learning communities. Each time, Laura excelled at setting a compelling vision for the group and investing people in it, managed the project expertly, and communicated regularly and clearly with participants. In addition to all the skills noted already, Laura is a phenomenal person. She approaches people with kindness and empathy and builds strong and authentic relationships across lines of difference. Working with Laura has been a bright spot in my time at Teach For America. Any team would be lucky to have her!
Experience
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America's Promise Alliance
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United States
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Non-profit Organizations
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1 - 100 Employee
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Director of Alliance Learning & Insights
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Jul 2023 - Present
Set the strategy for capture, codification, management and amplification of learning across America's Promise Alliance programming for senior level leaders of non profits across the US. Set the strategy for capture, codification, management and amplification of learning across America's Promise Alliance programming for senior level leaders of non profits across the US.
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Teach For America
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United States
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Education Administration Programs
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700 & Above Employee
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Managing Director of Organizational Learning
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Mar 2019 - May 2023
Assessed learning needs for TFA’s staff of 1,500 people, partnered with key stakeholders and subject matter experts to design, build, facilitate and evaluate professional development, communities of practice, continuous learning, and other learning opportunities to support staff skill-building and learning. - Responded to the shifting education landscape by redesigning TFA’s operating model in 4 months (in partnership with 5 other human centered designers & 350+ stakeholders and staff) to reduce costs, reduce variability, and increase student outcomes through the creation of 10 solutions - including an organization-wide plan for communities of practice. - Created scope & sequence and full suite of solutions (curriculum, asynchronous coursework, synchronous session design, learning assessments, etc.) and project managed all projects from initial idea to final product and evaluation. - Leveraged deep expertise in adult learning best practices to facilitate impactful live, virtual and in-person learning experience(s) with appropriate technology solutions, achieving 88% participant satisfaction across hundreds of facilitations. Show less
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Denver Public Schools
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United States
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Primary and Secondary Education
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700 & Above Employee
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Senior Instructional Designer & Communities of Practice Manager
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Jun 2016 - Mar 2019
Designed and lead professional development programming for 500+ teachers and a team of 10 facilitators.- Developed vision, built and managed district-wide professional development programming for 500+ teachers and 45 school leaders (principals and assistant principals).- Developed curriculum within our LMS, with hundreds of lessons and insights, cataloged resources, and interactive discussion boards.- Designed and scaled workflow systems to increase efficiency, transparency, and job satisfaction among my team of facilitators, retaining 100% of staff members on my team over 2.5 years.- Provided direct coaching to 12 school principals around the implementation of personalized learning. Show less
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Senior Team Manager
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Apr 2015 - Jun 2016
Lead a team of 8 field managers to deliver high quality coaching and professional development across 30 schools serving ECE-12th grade students.- Coached and trained field managers to deliver key outcomes for their job, including increasing touchpoints between coaches and school staff by 25%.- Created onboarding materials, ran hiring process and onboarded 3 new field managers to our team.- Conducted all performance evaluations for field managers (quarterly and annual).
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Personalized Learning Field Manager
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Jun 2014 - Apr 2015
Lead implementation of the Janus Blended Learning grant program including communication, tracking and direct support of 10 unique school implementations through coaching and professional development.- Built and managed relationships with key stakeholders including our funder (Janus), DPS central office staff, principals, school staff, students, community members and local partners.- Provided coaching, consultation and professional development for 10 school principals and their 200+ teachers, resulted in average student academic outcomes increasing by 5% compared to 2013/14 school year and student surveys showed 15% increase in student engagement. Show less
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Kindergarten and First Grade Teacher
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Aug 2009 - Jun 2014
Taught 140 students over 5 years at a Title 1 school, achieving high student growth and taking on coaching and professional development leadership roles at my school.- Achieved average of 1.25 years’ growth in student reading scores in one year by leveraging rigorous, individualized lesson plans and common core state standards to meet student needs.- Applied for, won and led implementation for a $60k school-wide technology grant to support blended & personalized learning school-wide.- Designed and facilitated our school’s first choice-based teacher professional development program, including communities of practice for staff to learn from each other, achieving 90% staff satisfaction.- Earned Mile High Teacher of the Year Award (2012) and Distinguished Teacher status on evaluations (2011, 2012, 2013). Show less
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Education
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2023 - 2023
America Walks
Walking College Fellowship -
2009 - 2011
University of Colorado Denver
Master of Arts (M.A.), Curriculum and Instruction -
2005 - 2009
Gustavus Adolphus College
Bachelor of Arts - BA, English
Community
