Industry Experience - Strategic Planning, Marketing & Development
ORGANIZATION DEVELOPMENT
Laura Easton's corporate experience includes American/Whitney Bank, Fulbright & Jaworski, Hobbs/Herder Advertising, PricewaterhouseCoopers and two premiere treatment centers. While in the corporate sector, Laura served on various boards and committees for nonprofit organizations. She was elected to the Board of Trustees for The Council on Alcohol and Drugs Houston where she served a three-year term and one term on the Advisory Board. In 1998, she was recruited by The Council to help with marketing and fundraising.
In her 12 years on staff with The Council, she helped develop, launch and produce The Waggoners Foundation Speaker Series, an award-winning series that raises funds, educates the community about the disease of addiction and reduces shame and stigma. In the first 11 years, the series raised over $9 million and attracted more than 21,000 attendees. Other projects for The Council included rolling out a new logo, strengthening the brand, developing and launching the agency website, converting the donor database to Raiser’s Edge, as well as raising $11 million during the Restoring Hope, Rebuilding Lives capital campaign to transform the facility into a campus-like setting and double the size of The Council. During the campaign, and previously, Laura had the honor of working with Houston’s private foundations and many other very generous donors.
Her involvement with The Council’s capital expansion and campus construction project included working with the clinical team on space planning, with the board and building committee on vendor selections, with the architect firm from schematic development through construction documents, with the construction team from ground breaking and dirt moving through opening doors, with project management on finishes, fixtures, equipment and furnishings, with the board for the grand opening, and with the agency for two full years of operation after opening doors on the new campus.
________________________________________________________________ FIELD OF ADDICTION & RECOVERY
Since 1988, Laura A. Easton, LMSW has been part of the addiction and recovery field and has worked for Sierra Tucson, The Meadows and The Council on Alcohol and Drugs Houston, including the Center for Recovering Families. She has also worked with and referred to a number of other local and national inpatient and outpatient treatment centers and many outstanding private practitioners in Houston and around the country.
At Sierra Tucson, Laura spent four months in the clinical internship program and was then hired fulltime to handle advertising, marketing, graphics, special projects and patient relations. She helped with alumni reunions, events and activities, and created a line of greeting cards and self-care packages.
For The Meadows, Laura was a regional marketing and community relations representative and was based in Houston. She developed relationships with therapists and other referents in her region, which included most of Texas. In 1996, she started The Meadows Free Public Lecture Series in Houston, Dallas, San Antonio and Austin. The first lecture in Houston was presented by Mary Bell at St. John the Divine Church. Other early speakers included Barbara Levinson, Mary Pratt, Lynne Paine and Cara Weed. Laura represented The Meadows at national conferences with well-known presenters, such as Dr. Patrick Carnes, Pia Mellody, and Claudia Black. She coordinated workshops and lectures presented by these and other giants in the field.
Laura invited many of these well-known presenters to speak at The Council and has worked with John Bradshaw, Paul Williams, Dr. Jean Kilbourne, Dr. Kevin McCauley, Dr. Leo Booth, Dr. Harriet Lerner, and Dr. Brené Brown, author of I Thought It Was Just Me (but it isn’t) and The Gifts of Imperfection.
In 1996, Laura attended her first Dr. Patrick Carnes’ Certified Sex Addiction Therapist training and got the message - a therapist who transforms their practice into one that specializes in the treatment of sex addiction has the potential to run a thriving practice. She has since been inspired to help therapists, with any specialty, transform and manage their practice using an appropriate business model. Laura is committed to helping treatment centers and private practitioners - with CSAT and other specialty certifications - integrate programming into their menu of services, and to encourage their clients’ use of all tools and technologies now available.
Laura’s professional background and personal experience prepared her to help treatment providers and private practitioners transform, build, develop and better manage their programs and practices. Her emphasis in graduate school was organization development, interning for Dr. Jean K. Latting through the Center for Organizational Research and Effectiveness (CORE) and for Harlan Consulting. Laura is active in the addiction treatment and recovery field and the CSAT community, involved with International Institute of Trauma & Addiction Professionals (IITAP) and supportive of the Society for the Advancement of Sexual Health (SASH). She is passionate about this work and excited to contribute to the quality of care in the field by helping treatment centers and private practitioners. In her work with clients, Laura is dedicated to helping providers and practitioners have better work/life balance, improve their skill and ability in assessing and treating complicated addiction and behavioral health issues; address family systems; and improve their client abstinence and recovery rates.
To discuss your practice goals, business challenges or nonprofit needs and how Easton Consulting, LLC can help you achieve results, please contact laura@eastonconsulting.net.
“Laura is a powerful,
passionate, energetic
partner, and it has been
a remarkable journey
to travel with her –
from the bottom of
an economic meltdown
to the launch of a
spectacular success –
thanks for her heart
and soul that she
put into the work.
The Council is stronger
and more visible and
sustainable as a result
of her profound
contribution.”
Joel Ferguson Chief Financial Officer The Council & Consultant
“I have LOVED
working with Laura
on so many projects!
Web, building,
computers! Her
clear, level-headed,
determined mind
has been
an inspiration.”
Trish Price Kincaid Director of Administrative Services & IT The Council