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Empowering single mothers through education

Lauren Ward: From homeless to Brown University

Empowering single mothers through education
A powerful story of one community college in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and how its sense of community and support is transforming lives for single mothers.
Director: Lara Everly
Producer: Emily Lallouz
Cinematographer: Senda Bonnet
Editor: Sean Stender
Executive Producer: Melissa Panzer, Joan Lynch, Art Bilger

Lauren Ward’s incredible journey from homelessness to Brown University is a testament to the power of determination. As a single mother pursuing a psychology degree at Santa Fe Community College in New Mexico, she overcame daunting obstacles to secure a brighter future for herself and her daughter.

At a school in which a significant portion of students face financial hardships, with nearly 30% earning annual incomes of $25,000 or less, Lauren’s pursuit of success resonates with many who are dealing with similar financial challenges.

Santa Fe Community College played a crucial role in Lauren’s transformation by providing support, and community resources. During Lauren’s time at Santa Fe Community College initiatives like the “campus cupboard” were launched to address the basic needs of student-parents, like food and baby supplies.

Recognizing the importance of supporting student-parents, the college has strived to become a more family-friendly campus, offering dedicated spaces for parents to study while keeping their children close. Lauren’s journey is just one example of the potential that exists within the student-parent population.

Her dream extended beyond community college, as she successfully applied to Brown University’s Resumed Undergraduate Education program. Despite her challenging past, she received admission to Brown, marking the next chapter of her remarkable journey.

Lauren firmly believes that if she could conquer homelessness and adversity, she can overcome anything that lies ahead. Her story serves as a testament to the boundless power of resilience and determination, as detailed in this original video.

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Dana Beth Ardi

Executive Committee

Dana Beth Ardi, PhD, Executive Committee, is a thought leader and expert in the fields of executive search, talent management, organizational design, assessment, leadership and coaching. As an innovator in the human capital movement, Ardi creates enhanced value in companies by matching the most sought after talent with the best opportunities. Ardi coaches boards and investors on the art and science of building high caliber management teams. She provides them with the necessary skills to seek out and attract top-level management, to design the ideal organizational architectures and to deploy people against strategy. Ardi unearths the way a business works and the most effective way for people to work in them.

Ardi is an experienced business executive and senior consultant who leverages business organizational transformation through talent strategies. She uses her knowledge and experience to develop talent strategies to enhance revenue and profit contributions. She has a deep expertise in change management and organizational effectiveness and has designed and built high performance cultures. Ardi has significant experience in mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, IPO’s and turnarounds.

Ardi is an expert on the multi-generational workforce. She understands the four intersecting generations of workers coming together in contemporary companies, each with their own mindsets, leadership and communications styles, values and motivations. Ardi is sought after to assist companies manage and thrive by bringing the generations together. Her book, Fall of the Alphas: How Beta Leaders Win Through Connection, Collaboration and Influence, will be published by St. Martin’s Press. The book reflects Ardi’s deep expertise in understanding organizations and our changing society. It focuses on building a winning culture, how companies must grow and evolve, and how talent influences and shapes communities of work. This is what she has coined “Corporate Anthropology.” It is a playbook on how modern companies must meet challenges – culturally, globally, digitally, across genders and generations.

Ardi is currently the Managing Director and Founder of Corporate Anthropology Advisors, LLC, a consulting company that provides human capital advisory and innovative solutions to companies building value through people. Corporate Anthropology works with organizations, their cultures, the way they grow and develop, and the people who are responsible for forming their communities of work.

Prior to her position at Corporate Anthropology Advisors, Ardi served as a Partner/Managing Director at the private equity firms CCMP Capital and JPMorgan Partners. She was a partner at Flatiron Partners, a venture capital firm working with early state companies where she pioneered the human capital role within an investment portfolio.

Ardi holds a BS from the State University of New York at Buffalo as well as a Masters degree and PhD from Boston College. She started her career as professor at the Graduate Center at Fordham University in New York.