![Laurie Dowling Laurie Dowling](/sites/default/files/styles/width_275/public/person/2021-07/image/Dowling%20headshot%202020.jpg?itok=sr41c59T)
Laurie Dowling
Laurie is Executive Director for the National Utilities Diversity Council, a national non-profit organization that conducts research to educate, develop best practices and guide efforts that will promote diversity in the utilities industry in the areas of governance, employment, procurement, language access/customer service, and philanthropy. The NUDC is a non-profit organization representing a dynamic collaboration of national leaders from the utilities and communications industries working to promote diversity in the areas of governance, employment, procurement, language access/customer service, and philanthropy. NUDC conducts research and shares best practices to educate, assist, and guide companies in their efforts to promote a diverse workplace. NUDC’s work is presented through workshops, webinars, virtual panels, a free interactive Diversity Toolkit, and an annual conference of national leaders in diversity.
For eight years Laurie was Executive Director of the Office of Executive Education Programs of the UCLA Anderson School of Management. At UCLA she was responsible for oversight of all aspects of one of the world’s top executive education programs, serving over 1,500 executives annually. At UCLA, one of Laurie’s most significant accomplishments was the development of the Leadership Suite of programs – the African American Leadership Institute, the Latino Leadership Institute, the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Leadership Institute, the Women’s Leadership Institute, and the Leadership Institute for Managers with Disabilities -- the only suite of its kind at a school of management in the world. For the Leadership Institute for Managers with Disabilities, Laurie was the program designer and faculty co-director.
Prior to joining UCLA Anderson in late 1999, Laurie was Development Director for Women’s Enterprise Development Corporation, designing curricula, raising funds, and overseeing Board development for this non-profit organization which provided entrepreneurial training, technical assistance and loan packaging for women and men to start their own businesses or make their existing enterprises more successful. A key event in Laurie’s experience has been her work as Development Director for the 1993 Los Angeles Festival, an international, intercultural, interdisciplinary arts festival that highlighted the arts of Africa and the Middle East and was a direct response to the 1992 civil unrest that rocked Los Angeles, with an attendance of over 750,000.
Laurie serves on the Boards of Directors of the Californians for Public Higher Education, and Old Stories: New Lives. Laurie is a graduate of the University of North Carolina, a graduate of the Executive Program at UCLA Anderson School of Management, and a resident of Los Angeles’ Silver Lake neighborhood. She is married to Michael Woo.