Laura’s journey to coaching began as a teacher at Teach For America. She was fascinated by the process of designing and implementing a classroom culture that was emotionally intelligent, kind, achievement oriented, supportive, challenging, etc. She saw this chapter as a training ground to learn how to transfer these learnings to adults. This ultimately is what brought her to graduate school for I/O Psychology, and then directly into McKinsey's Organization Practice to do consulting around the firm's proprietary culture assessment, the Organizational Health Index (OHI).

In 2017 she began her coach training with CoActive to supplement her organizational work and in 2018 she shifted to an internal role as a facilitator and coach to McKinsey colleagues and teams. This is a role she played in varying forms until she left the firm in January of 2024 to begin coaching and facilitation work within her own business, King Leigh Coaching. 

Laura specializes in working with high-performing professionals who aspire to become extraordinary leaders, starting with self-leadership. Her philosophy is that her clients are inherently creative, resourceful, and whole. Laura helps her clients first and foremost to connect with their own inner leader—their values and what truly inspires them—before examining their strengths, blind spots, and what’s important or next in their journey. She guides them in setting big goals and taking bold steps towards achieving them.

Laura frequently uses CoActive methods, such as balance and mindset coaching and powerful questioning, along with several other modalities she has mastered over time. One of her favorite tools is “parts work,” a technique inspired by Dick Schwartz’s Internal Family Systems therapy and re-conceptualized in coaching literature, including Shirzad Chamine’s Positive Intelligence method. Laura often employs this approach to help her clients gain clarity on their inner dialogue, develop understanding and acceptance of the different parts and voices within them, and nurture their unique and powerful inner leader to emerge as their primary guide.

Laura holds a M.S. in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from San Francisco State University, a Master’s of Education from University of Arizona, and a B.A from Xavier University. She also holds an International Coaching Federation certification. She lives with her hilarious husband and force of a toddler in Atlanta, GA where you’ll find her gardening rain or shine.