TestimonialsMulticultural Organizational Development“Laurin has contributed much to the well-being of the Alameda Health Consortium in our quest to strengthen our effectiveness as a team and improve communication among staff members.We hired Laurin in 2003 to lead us through the challenging work of addressing issues of race, power and hierarchy in our organization. Laurin developed the workshop materials and facilitated the staff retreats. She exercised sound judgment, patience, integrity and respect. We are grateful to Laurin for providing us with the skills and structure so that we can continue this ongoing process on our own.” —Lois Bailey Lindsey "Laurin worked with us at United Advocates for Children of California during the start-up phase of the Statewide Family Network National Technical Assistance Program in 2002-2003. She built our staff capacity in organizational and program development to support 43 Statewide Family Networks in developing their leadership and organizations. Laurin worked with us to ensure that our technical assistance and training was competent in multiculturalism, strategic planning, and logic model mapping. UACC-TAC has demonstrated a forward progress and leadership at the local, statewide and national levels due to Laurin's multicultural values and vision, partnership skills, and commitment to a community-based strategic planning process." —Gayle Wiler
Group Facilitation“The W.K. Kellogg Foundation hired Laurin Mayeno to facilitate a one-day forum for 30 health and healthcare professionals who are highly invested and immersed in helping to improve the health of Asian American Pacific Islanders (AAPI). With her polished facilitation skills and attention to detail, Ms. Mayeno guided this collection of champions and thought leaders in a highly interactive discussion to brainstorm, highlight, and hone in on critical issues and opportunities related to AAPI health. She fostered rich dialogue in small and large group discussions to effectively advance a highly ambitious agenda and help us arrive at our meeting goals. Her personal experiences in AAPI and community health were additional benefits that contributed to the depth of conversations she was able to draw from meeting participants. The learning and knowledge derived from this pivotal convening have greatly informed the Foundation’s program development work to improve the health of vulnerable AAPI populations. We are very pleased with the outcomes from this meeting and appreciate the highly valued and skilled facilitation provided by Ms. Mayeno.” —Albert K. Yee, MD, MPH "During 2003 Alameda County's Environmental Health and Public Health Departments completed a process for developing a joint environmental justice policy. It was necessary for our two, independently managed organizations to collaborate with one another, and also to engage a wide range of community members, nonprofit groups and industry representatives. At first our task seemed overwhelming, but with Laurin's guidance, we succeeded. Laurin was instrumental to our completing this process. She helped identify the tough issues to be addressed and the key questions to be answered. Laurin also assisted us to identify effective processes for developing and adopting our policy as well as appropriate venues for our meetings. She was also a skilled, perceptive facilitator. We got the sense from Laurin that our success in developing our EJ policy was as important to her as it was to us." —Pamela J. Evans Curriculum Development and Education“Laurin is simply an amazing person to have worked with our immigrant leaders fellowship program. Laurin provided consultative, facilitation and training services. She designed and developed the health curriculum that was integrated into the fellowship program. Laurin teamed with the fellowship staff and consultant Francisco Herrera who provided a cultural component for the program.Laurin was viewed as a role model for the fellows and a mentor for the staff. She brings vast knowledge and experience collaborating with ethnically diverse communities. Her skills are unique and very valuable to groups working with grassroots communities. She will challenge organizations to do the best job possible for their constituents. She is passionate and dedicated to her work, reliable and organized. I highly recommend Laurin to organizations that are looking for guidance and direction.” —Noe Paramo Strategic and Program Planning“Laurin facilitated our Steering Committee retreat to assist the Collaborative in a process of priority setting and to work on a theory of change for the organization. Laurin was delightful to work with prior to the event; she asked just the right questions, had many insightful comments, and was prepared for the retreat. The event was smooth, thought provoking and very productive. She moved us to a new level organizationally. Although several members were reluctant to discuss the same issues yet again, everyone felt that the time spent was productive, worthwhile, and fun. We are hoping to hire her again for another piece of work as an out growth of the retreat.” —Sandi Goldstein, MPH “Ms. Mayeno guided our team through a series of structured discussions that helped discipline our thinking around health disparities. The subject of healthcare disparities is ripe for a number of diverse perspectives and different approaches for problem solving. Laurin's facilitation was flexible enough for us to explore individual values, and also appropriately engaging to enable us to make progress to define objectives and goals. She explored our core assumptions with us and helped us to move to a work plan, so that everyone could feel that we were making concrete progress. In addition, she patiently waded through our descriptions of a fairly complicated organizational structure, and struggled with us as a partner to understand the distinct challenges and contributions facing our company. Laurin kept us on task, and provided us with meeting-to-meeting support and progression to a work plan that wove in our aspirations and our charge to get something done.” —Winston F. Wong, MD, MS |
