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Brandy Lawrence

What would you like to accomplish within the next 5 years?

Empower more people and influence more policies to make a promise to very young, vulnerable children that we as a society care about how they are faring and are willing to do something about it, for as long as it takes.

What do you think are the biggest issues facing your generation?

The achievement gap, environmental issues, honesty about who we are, who we think we are as a generation.

What do you hope to learn from more established leaders?

Tested lessons learned, how to maintain the clarity the 30,000ft. foot vision while executing the day to day strategies with efficiency and sophistication.

What do you think more established leaders can learn from your work?

I try and maintain openness to learning and to growing everyday. I think it is important to recognize that there is value in being able to offer the type of knowledge that only experience can provide, but there is also value in being able to recognize that experience may have colored your perspective, and as such makes it a challenge to separate from that experience to view an issue with fresh eyes and renewed resolve. So it pretty much goes back to the ability to maintain a level of honesty with yourself that allows you to value the knowledge and power that someone who has not had as much experience as you have can add to effort.

What is the most gratifying aspect of your work?

The "big tent" approach…meaning that our work aims to improve policies and systems that touch large numbers of very young children. Additionally, while I admit that policy is an evolving thins, I do believe that the change I am trying to bring about is not fleeting, but sustainable, and that gives me satisfaction. Having a solution.


What are the biggest obstacles in your work?

Getting decision makers to look past the instant gratification that some quick fixes provide. Getting those who influence policies to see the forest beyond the trees. Making a commitment to prevention policies forces one to be bold and diligent and there are small numbers of people that can manage both. How do you work around those obstacles?

Staying committed to viewing issues from multiple perspectives and identifying and trying to deliver what people need to stay invested in the conversation.

What tools or resources do you need to help you continue your work?

Support and encouragement, I think the rest will come.

What advice would you give to younger folks wanting to impact social justice issues? Do not think that the work of social justice looks one way and one way only. It can be what you make it to be from policy work, to direct service and intervention work, to the research that guides the big ideas. Also, you do not have to operate from a place of anger or bitterness to be effective, a belief in something better can be just as an effective place to start.

Define leadership.

I believe that some of the key elements of leadership include:
A unrelenting commitment to being honest with yourself
The ability to identify which questions to ask and the ability and
confidence to go about answering them
Having the ability to maintain the clarity the 30,000 ft. foot vision
while executing the day to day strategies with efficiency and
sophistication,
Understanding the imperative of building relationships and honoring
the power of different perspectives