Trainer Biography

LAURA VAN DERNOOT LIPSKY, MSW

Laura van Dernoot Lipsky has formally been involved in social change work for nineteen years. Her career has included frontline trauma work, teaching on theory and practice, organizational consulting and counseling individuals and couples. Her frontline experience has included working with homelessness, child abuse, sexual assault, domestic violence, and acute trauma. She trains on systematic oppression and liberation theory as well as on secondary trauma. She has volunteered throughout her career with women in the sex trade, immigrants and refugees, local food banks and the public schools. Additionally she has served individuals and organizations through the use of animal assisted therapy. Her pet partner, Caleb, a Rottweiler, worked with both youth and adults in need. She has worked locally, nationally and internationally.

Currently she is the founder and director of a Spanish language preschool and grader school enrichment program guided by a social justice and environmental stewardship curriculum.

Laura lives in Seattle, is a mother, received a Master of Social Work degree and is bilingual in Spanish