Meet Dr. Lary

Dr. Laurel Lary is a program and project leader with three decades of operational experience across school site, district, and county education levels. She began as a classroom teacher and grew into executive leadership. She has successfully led major change initiatives, managed multi-million-dollar project and program budgets, and spent the last decade focused on career education and workforce development. Her consulting work and her current role as an elected Governing Board Director have further broadened that experience.

Dr. Lary understands what leaders are carrying, the competing priorities, the stakeholder dynamics, the weight of consequential decisions, because she has carried them herself. Her depth of experience includes business operations, budget, risk management, and HR. Whether she is leading programs and projects or supporting employee growth, she brings an executive’s perspective and a genuine commitment to helping people grow.

Dr. Lary is known for turning complex goals into clear plans, keeping projects on track, and building partnerships that last. Most recently, prior to self-employment, she served as Executive Director of Career Education at the Ventura County Office of Education. She holds an Ed.D. in Leadership and Innovation from NYU, an M.A. in Educational Leadership from Cal Lutheran University, and a B.A. in English from UC Santa Barbara.

Dr. Laurel Lary, Ed.D. Principal of Laurel Lary Enterprises

Education & Credentials

  • Ed.D., New York University — Leadership & Innovation

  • M.A., California Lutheran University — Educational Leadership

  • B.A., University of California, Santa Barbara — English

  • California Single Subject Teaching Credential — English (CTC)

  • California Administrative Services Credential (CTC)

  • CA Special District Governance (2024)

  • Monitoring & Evaluation: Project Management for the UN, Govt, and NGOs (NYU, 2025)

Distinctive Experience

  • Program and project leadership, from design and redesign through budget-driven scaling and on-time delivery

  • Department leadership across budget, HR, risk, and business operations

  • Cross-sector partnerships, stakeholder alignment, and initiative leadership

  • Developing people through supervision, mentoring, and one-on-one support

  • 30 years presenting across settings, including classroom instruction, workshops, panels, professional development, and facilitated committee and advisory meetings

  • Data-informed strategy and analysis

  • Grant development and management

  • Elected Governing Board Director with a public agency governance perspective

Affiliations

  • International Association of Facilitators (IAF)

  • Santa Barbara South Coast Chamber of Commerce