Laura Lee McGovern is currently an independent consultant. She is the former chief of staff and strategy for Uncommon Schools, a nonprofit charter management organization that starts and manages urban public charter schools that close the achievement gap and prepare low-income students to graduate from college. Uncommon Schools educates 20,000 students in grades K-12 across 53 schools in Boston, Camden, Newark, New York City and Rochester. Uncommon Schools was the 2013 Winner and 2018 Finalist of the Broad Prize for Public Charter Schools. Laura was at Uncommon for 18 years, most recently serving as a member of the executive team for over a decade, where she led organizational strategy and growth as well as legal affairs and alumni impact. Prior to becoming chief of staff and strategy, Laura served as founding chief operating officer of Uncommon’s middle and high schools in New York City and founding co-director of operations at Kings Collegiate Charter School. Before joining Uncommon, Laura was the founding director of analytics in student enrollment at the New York City Department of Education, and was an engagement manager at Katzenbach Partners LLC, a management consulting firm. Laura received her MBA from Harvard Business School, where she was a Baker Scholar. She earned her BA in social studies at Harvard College and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.