Lauryn Henley is the Program Director at Lead For Liberation (L4L), where she is on purpose supporting the liberation of all people through strategic partnerships and as the Lead Facilitator of The Conscious Racist program.
For the last 18 years, Lauryn Henley has worked as a leader, speaker, facilitator and consciousness coach whose purpose is to support individuals, families, communities and organizations to liberate themselves, thrive and experience transformative relationships.
Lauryn is deeply committed to ending systemic racism and views this as her life’s work since she was 19. In 2003, she graduated from the University of Florida with a Bachelor’s in Psychology focusing on race and multicultural studies. Specifically, she studied the role that white people play in perpetuating racial injustice. At that time, Lauryn was committed to racial equality through educational transformation and joined Teach for America in 2003.
For thirteen years, Lauryn worked on the west side of Chicago as a teacher, and school leader at KIPP: Ascend Middle School. During this time, she was also coaching and consulting around diversity, achievement and inclusion at 6 Teach for America Summer Institutes.
Lauryn’s journey as a school leader led her to the conclusion that in order to disrupt the system and change behavior she needed to start at the level of consciousness. As a result, she participated in four Conscious Leadership forums as well as began facilitating white affinity spaces and consciousness classes at Bodhi Spiritual Center in Chicago. In 2019, Lauryn was certified as a 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership Coach and left her 16-year education career to work as a leader, speaker, consultant, and coach who partners with individuals and organizations to support the emergence of more conscious cultures.
Lauryn received a Masters in Curriculum Planning and Design from National Louis University, earned a National Board Certification in Literacy and completed the KIPP School Leadership Training Institute at New York University, in 2011. In 2009, Lauryn was awarded Teacher of the Year for Chicago Charter Schools and in 2011 was a finalist for the Teach for America Distinguished Leader Award.
Lauryn is also an inspiring public speaker. She has been invited to speak at the National Charter School Conference in Minneapolis, and as a keynote speaker for Teach for America’s Induction Ceremony, at North Park University, Columbia College, and Indiana University-Purdue on Leadership, Consciousness, and Education. She also co-hosts a weekly podcast called The Healing Collective podcast that discusses the paradox of collective healing.
Lauryn is a proud mother to her fourteen year old son, Taylen and loves communing with nature, creating sacred rituals as a celebrant and forging deep, meaningful relationships with the people closest to her.