Laura Slay has more than 20 years of experience in organizational development, fundraising, philanthropy and managing strategic initiatives and programs in support of hundreds of millions of dollars in private funding.

As acting director of corporate and foundation relations at Washington University School of Medicine, she was responsible for major campus events, grant writing, and stewardship of private funding for medical campus programs, including a state-of the-art library, capital campaigns, and Alzheimer’s research.

As president of Slay and Associates, Inc. since 1991, she has worked directly with high net worth individuals, philanthropists, non-profits, and entrepreneurs as an advisor, strategist, and director of communications/branding. She has identified affinity partners and built collaborative programs and long-term relationships with private foundations, universities, museums, business leaders, civic organizations, think tanks and national policy organizations, national media, and many others.

In 2006, Laura was named executive director for CEAM and has guided the organization’s growth and position as the leading education reform organization in the state of Missouri. She successfully managed an aggressive organizational capacity building effort that grew staff from one full time employee to four and now is responsible for the organization’s strategic direction, fundraising, public relations and board development.