“I was inspired by the various causes where I served as a volunteer, and I wanted to make a difference all the time — much more than the extra hours that I had available for volunteering.”
Laurie Davis has lived a life of giving. In her mid-twenties, she started volunteering in her spare time; first at Cedars Medical Center then with Children’s Home Society. This was followed by 6 years volunteering as a Guardian Ad Litem before joining the advisory boards for New World Symphony and Daily Bread Food Bank (now Feeding South Florida) in her early thirties. “During this time period, I had my daughter, who would accompany me to my meetings,” she says. “She is now with the Peace Corp, and I’d like to think those early meetings set the foundation for her desire to volunteer as well.” She then went on four different City of Miami Beach committees, amongst other endeavors, and is currently on the Miami Beach Commission For Women. While working at two underserved high schools in Miami, she created and ran a school-to-work mentoring program funded by the Department of Education. Today, she changes lives for the better as Executive Director of the Commonwealth Institute South Florida, a diverse, welcoming and accomplished group of business and professional women all coming together for the sole purpose of lifting one another up. “Every day, I witness our community’s female leaders grow professionally and personally,” she says. “I’m inspired by them and their desire to bring a stronger female presence to the business world.”
