Lauri Mitchell

Lauri Mitchell began her professional career as a high school English teacher, where for 11 years she successfully taught her adolescent students to love the beauty of the English language. It was a career that took passion and courage, as anyone who has spent time with teenagers will agree.

These traits helped her succeed in her next career as a business owner. Taking a brave leap into an unknown field, Lauri became an independent training consultant and has played a key role in the human resources industry since 1983, eventually founding her own company, Mitchell Motivation. Lauri’s mission has been to help companies create environments where people can perform to their highest potential while improving workplace performance.

She succeeded beyond her expectations, and learned through the ongoing support and guidance of the “bad girls” that she could stretch her expectations even more. For twenty years she was an independent distributor for Inscape Publishing (formerly Carlson Learning), and in 2007 was honored with Inscape’s Emerald Award, their second-highest award, recognizing Lauri for being in the top one percent of worldwide independent consultants. Lauri is well-known in the automotive field, working as a consultant and trainer with companies such as Ford, Toyota, Infiniti, Lexus, Nissan, Mitsubishi, and Chrysler, for whom she designed and facilitated nation-wide workshops in management and team development, culture change, customer service, and sales. Lauri also worked as a consultant or trainer with J.D. Power and Associates, IBM, and the State of Illinois.

Lauri has always focused on philanthropic projects and served as the founding Chair of the Women’s Board and is presently serving as Governing Board Chair for Rainbows for All Children, an international not-for-profit organization that helps children heal from grief and loss. Through fundraising and event planning, in which she was helped and supported by her team of “bad girls”, Lauri brings her high-energy approach and down-to-earth practical style to this new endeavor of the heart. Lauri’s tenacity and hard work have helped Rainbows ring healing to thousands of children at risk.

Lauri and her husband live near Chicago, close to her two adult children and five grandchildren. She can be reached at www.mitchellmotivation.com. Or check out Rainbows at www.rainbows.org.