Informed, Inclusive, Invisible

Laura is the Project Coordinator for OUTniagara, a non-profit organization
with a 17-year history of bringing together Niagara's gender- and
sexually-diverse communities.

Laura is a graduate of both Brock University and Niagara College. She has
worked in public, private, and non-profit sector roles and is the founder,
president, and head coach of Underdogs Boxing Club, which is a local,
entirely volunteer-run, fully inclusive non-profit organization that offers
recreational non-contact boxing programming to the community, including
women-identified and non-binary survivors of violence, and youth.

As a first-term Regional Councillor representing St. Catharines, Laura has
been successful in getting Niagara Region to join the Coalition of Inclusive
Municipalities. Further to that initiative, she also brought motions to
Council to have Niagara Region recognize racism, homophobia, transphobia,
and all forms of discrimination or oppression as public health issues. In
discussions about advisory committees for the work related to Niagara's
membership with the Coalition of Inclusive Municipalities, Laura moved to
have the Region create a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Advisory Committee
along with an Anti-Racism Advisory Committee and a 2SLGBTQQIA Advisory
Committee.