Summary
Overview
Work History
Education
Skills
Courses Workshops Retreats
Blogs Webinars
Certifications Memberships
Presentations
Personal Information
Publications
Timeline
Generic

Karen Laing

Madison,WI

Summary

Experienced leader eager to leverage 25 years of hands-on practice putting strategic vision into action, establishing goals, and cultivating self-motivated teams that create results. Skilled in handling administrative, operational, outreach and program functions, building efficiencies, and overseeing change processes. Wears many hats to accomplish dynamic objectives and can be in the weeds, with an appreciation for the established vision and steps to achieve success, or a strategic thinker with fresh perspectives. Ready to apply deep and broad experience as a small business owner with consistent growth as well as a high growth social impact startup founder to fuel the success of purpose driven organizations.

Overview

30
30
years of professional experience

Work History

CEO & Founder

Okkanti Inc.
01.2022 - Current
  • Lead founder in a technology startup improving access to home and community-based solutions and driving health equity through network building and payer innovations.
  • Completed listening surveys and human-centered design processes to develop a multiple-stakeholder design solution.
  • Successfully led a multi-disciplinary design team to build a custom-developed HIPAA-compliant WordPress platform and API integrations that serve as a Minimum Viable Product currently in testing as a 2-sided marketplace.
  • Successfully led interns and team members to build a Community as Service adjacent platform.
  • Developed a cohesive brand and communication strategy, as well as multi-channel campaigns, generating early 2-sided network effect in a care marketplace.
  • Built productive relationships with industry partners and competitors to support strategic business objectives and to form collaborative approaches for social impact.
  • Analyzed industry trends and tracked competitor activities to inform decision-making and to shape solutions.
  • Established revenue models, cash flow, and cost projections and bootstrapped to reach revenue and market traction.
  • Developed and refined investor and stakeholder pitches to build supporters for a solution addressing a complex problem.
  • Developed innovative sales and marketing strategies to present a disruptive solution to a fragmented market.
  • Researched and completed multiple grant and funding strategies and vehicles.

Founder

WisdomWay Institute
01.2017 - Current
  • Over 20 year period, refined proprietary framework for delivering mindfulness-based health care and social support, leading to formation of learning and practice organization.
  • Developed comprehensive 70-hour Postpartum Doula and First Year Specialist Certification program, along with Code of Ethics and Scope of Practice for emerging profession.
  • Researched and updated best practices related to pregnancy wellness, postpartum health, mental health, infant and child development, lactation, and trauma-informed care as well as methods for assessment.
  • Adapted 5-day live training course into multi-media online learning platform.
  • Developed and taught proprietary frameworks for Healing Informed Care, Equity, and Safety through Relationship-Centered Care (RCC).
  • Built evidence-based mindfulness curriculum for targeted populations of learners.

Founder & Advisor

Birthways, Inc.
01.1997 - 01.2024
  • Developed early National standards for Certification and service delivery in emerging field.
  • Established trusted reputation with health professionals and other referral channels as well as with 10k clients, with 97% satisfaction rate.
  • Initiated contracts with not-for-profit partners and met Illinois requirements for state contractors.
  • Cultivated mindfulness-based, inclusive and quality-driven company culture with strong values-alignment and proprietary training methods.
  • Initiated strategy and built innovations to meet changing market conditions in new and growing industry.
  • Developed technology improvements, operational efficiencies, and staff training to deliver high-touch service offerings and care plans, removing bottlenecks.
  • Developed strong partnerships with other businesses to allow for collaboration and more significant opportunities for growth.
  • Established financial processes, cash projections, budgets and Key Metrics to measure and to improve profitability.
  • Developed and refined people processes, recruited key talent, and facilitated culture of personal growth and commitment to staff and clients.
  • Managed risk effectively by implementing comprehensive policies and procedures to mitigate potential threats to the business.

Midwifery Instructor

Midwest Maternal Child Institute
01.2008 - 01.2012
  • Classroom instruction for Certified Professional Midwifery Program incorporating frameworks for mindfulness and collaboration.
  • Courses including Lactation Management and Perinatal Mental Health/PPMD.
  • Tested students to assess progress and adapted learning plans in alignment with performance.
  • Assisted in curriculum development, ensuring alignment with state standards and best practices for effective instruction.

Midwife and Lactation Consultant

New Life Midwifery
01.1998 - 01.2003
  • Assisting with Well-Woman Care, prenatal care and home birth deliveries.
  • Providing postpartum home visiting, Lactation consultation, newborn check-ups and postpartum wellness visits.
  • Charting and documentation within private practice setting.

Student Midwife

CASA Hospital de Maternidad
  • Quickly developed courteous and effective working relationships with CASA physicians, midwives, visiting faculty and student midwives.
  • Established connection with pregnant and birthing patients.
  • Shadowed and assumed prenatal, postpartum, and Well Woman care in clinic setting, as well as labor and delivery care in Hospital.
  • Shadowed community health education and outreach efforts.
  • Participated in Maternal Mortality Review in rural underdeveloped community.
  • Included management & co-management of deliveries with Midwives and Physicians.

Director

Dana Mothercare
01.1994 - 01.1997
  • Built a growth structure and training methods to deliver labor support and postpartum care services to a new market.
  • Disrupted existing service models for pregnant and postpartum people, including a new specialization for collaborative in-home care for PPMDs.
  • Led a collaboration to deliver in-home doula care to at-risk youth who were pregnant or parenting.
  • Oversaw operations and provided corrective feedback to achieve daily and long-term goals.
  • Increased company revenue with steady month-over-month growth in a niche market.
  • Monitored and coordinated workflows to optimize resources.
  • Established key referral channels, earned publicity, and go-to-market strategy for a new service offering.
  • Spearheaded successful service launches that resulted in increased brand visibility and customer acquisition.
  • Published findings on home-based models of care for the postpartum family.
  • Presented locally and nationally to health care and behavioral health professionals.

Education

Global Sustainable Development Leadership

Vital Voices Global Women's Leadership Fellow
Washington DC
2023

Mindful Leadership And Executive Training

Inner MBA
2021

Level 2 MBI-TAC Accreditation -

Mindful Academy
Alicante, Spain
01.2017

Integrative Health Coach Certification -

Duke Integrative Medicine
Durham
01.2014

Associate of Science - Midwifery

The National College of Midwifery
Taos, NM
01.2002

BFA Program - Fine Arts

The School of The Art Institute of Chicago
Chicago

Skills

  • Business Administration
  • Problem-Solving
  • Organization
  • Decision-Making
  • Quality Assurance
  • Team Engagement
  • Community Outreach
  • Client Relationship Building
  • Strategic Planning
  • Operations Management
  • Organizational Leadership
  • Leadership and People Development
  • Policies and Procedures
  • Project Oversight
  • Content Creation
  • Digital Marketing

Courses Workshops Retreats

  • Centered in Compassion, Centered in Dignity, Centered in Trust: A trio of 3-day learning retreats in the 6 Qualities of Embodied Mindfulness
  • First Year Specialist/Postpartum Doula Dual Certification: 8 Modules/70 hour Certification Course: online and live sessions
  • Discovering Your Loveliness: a 3-day Mindfulness Retreat
  • First Step Workshop: 1 day workshop introducing the Compass of Mindful Caregiving
  • Mindful Parenting: 1-day mindfulness/self-care retreat
  • Loving through Difficulty: a 28-day Mindful Caregiving Program (for family caregivers)
  • Deep Listening workshop
  • Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction: An online 8-week model

Blogs Webinars

  • Regular contributor, Birthways, https://www.birthwaysinc.com
  • Regular contributor, WisdomWay Institute, https://www.wisdomwayinstitute.com/blog/
  • Regular contributor, WisdomWay Doulas, https://www.wisdomwaydoulas.com
  • Regular contributor, Mindful Family Caregivers, https://www.mindfulfamilycaregivers.com
  • Guest contributor, Wildflower Center for Emotional Health Webzine, https://wildflowerllc.com/webzine/
  • Perinatal Expert, Babyserv

Certifications Memberships

  • MatterHealth, Chicago, 2022-present
  • International Board Certified Lactation Consultant and Registered Lactation Consultant. IBLCE exam 2005, 2010, 2020
  • Accredited Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Teacher. Mindful Academy, Solterreno, Spain. Completed Coursework and supervision, 2016, 2017
  • Society for Participatory Medicine. 2019
  • Inner MBA. 2020-2021

Presentations

  • Centered Care: Embodying qualities central to Relationship-Centered, Equitable and Trauma-informed care, American College of Nurse Midwives (ACNM) Midwifery Works 2022, Henderson, NV, October 2022
  • Centered in Healing: Embodying Healing Informed Care, GOLD Learning Latest in Lactation Symposium, October 2021
  • Centered Care: Embodying Qualities Central to Relationship-Centered, Equitable, and Trauma-Sensitive Care Part 1: Compassion, Hope Consortium, WI, August 2021
  • Centered Care: Embodying Qualities Central to Relationship-Centered, Equitable, and Trauma-Sensitive Care Part 2: Collected Attention, Hope Consortium, WI, August 2021
  • Centered in Compassion: Embodying Compassion & Collected Attention in Trauma-Sensitive Care, Mental Health and Substance Use & Recovery Conference, Stevens Point, WI, October 2020
  • Resilient Presence: Mindfulness and Caregiving, National Federation of Families for Children’s Mental Health 30th Annual Conference, Phoenix, AZ, November 2019
  • Trauma-informed Guided Mindfulness, National Federation of Families for Children’s Mental Health 30th Annual Conference, Phoenix, AZ, November 2019
  • Turning Towards the Difficult: Mindfulness and Caregiving, National Caregivers Conference, Chicago, IL, November 2018
  • From This Body: Lesbian, Gay & Transgender experience of pregnancy, birth & parenting, Midwives Alliance of North America, Region 4 Conference, Madison, WI, 2010
  • Parents in Waiting: Struggling with Conception Challenges and Infertility, National Rainbow Families Conference, Minneapolis, MN, 2008
  • From This Body: LBT (Non-Binary) Pregnancy, Birth and Parenting, National Rainbow Families Conference, Minneapolis, MN, 2008
  • The Home Setting for Perinatal Care, American Psychological Association Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL, 1997
  • March of Dimes 25th Annual Perinatal Nursing Conference, Chicago, IL, 2000

Personal Information

Title: IBCLC, RLC, AMT

Publications

  • WisdomWay Methodologies and Frameworks
  • 40 Second Compassion Initiatives
  • 6 Qualities of Embodied Mindfulness: Creating safe, equitable, and compassionate healthcare (2019)
  • WisdomWay 28-day Workbook (2019)
  • WisdomWay FYS/PPD Workbook (2018)
  • Art of Listening (2018)
  • WisdomWay Compass of Mindful Caregiving (2017)
  • WisdomWay Commitments of Mindful Caregiving (2017)
  • Empowered, Informed and Supported: Health Care Personalities (2015)
  • Empowered, Informed and Supported: Health Care Decision-Making (2015)
  • Empowered, Informed and Supported: Choosing a Practitioner (2000)
  • Contributing author: Housecalls: Psychosocial Interventions in the Home edited by Nancy Newton & Kadi Sprengle, Springer Publishing, 2000

Timeline

CEO & Founder

Okkanti Inc.
01.2022 - Current

Founder

WisdomWay Institute
01.2017 - Current

Midwifery Instructor

Midwest Maternal Child Institute
01.2008 - 01.2012

Midwife and Lactation Consultant

New Life Midwifery
01.1998 - 01.2003

Founder & Advisor

Birthways, Inc.
01.1997 - 01.2024

Director

Dana Mothercare
01.1994 - 01.1997

Student Midwife

CASA Hospital de Maternidad

Global Sustainable Development Leadership

Vital Voices Global Women's Leadership Fellow

Mindful Leadership And Executive Training

Inner MBA

Level 2 MBI-TAC Accreditation -

Mindful Academy

Integrative Health Coach Certification -

Duke Integrative Medicine

Associate of Science - Midwifery

The National College of Midwifery

BFA Program - Fine Arts

The School of The Art Institute of Chicago

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Karen Laing