Hi! I’m Laura!
I love to tell stories that connect people.
I’m a behind the scenes gal. Focused on the strategy and messaging that gets others noticed. I don’t need the credit. I don’t want it. As a theatre kid back in the day, my first and favorite role of all was stage manager, setting the scene for others to shine. As a high school cheerleader, I was a base — lifting up teammates for everyone to applaud. I help people do things they can’t do alone. It’s my thing.
I’m a behind the scenes gal. Focused on the strategy and messaging that gets others noticed. I don’t need the credit. I don’t want it. As a theatre kid back in the day, my first and favorite role of all was stage manager, setting the scene for others to shine. As a high school cheerleader, I was a base — lifting up teammates for everyone to applaud. I help people do things they can’t do alone. It’s my thing.
Fire Service Experience
From 2015-2019, I had the honor of providing public relations support to the Connecticut Fire Chiefs Association for its implementation of a statewide volunteer firefighter recruitment campaign funded by FEMA SAFER grants in partnership with the International Association of Fire Chiefs. The work we did together on Everyday Hero CT is far and away some of my favorite work of my career.
In fact, all the work I’ve done with volunteer fire departments is my favorite. I spent 12 years handling public relations for the Avon Volunteer Fire Department, and I have had the privilege of working on some special projects for the fire districts in Trumbull as well.
But my love for the fire service started long before all that – my father was a volunteer in Madison, Connecticut when I was a kid, and the people in our fire family were some of my favorite humans. In fact, during one of our Everyday Hero CT chef segments at News 8 in New Haven, a crew stopped by to taste the dish one of our local volunteers had prepared. One of them was the son of a firefighter I knew as a kid … and I used to babysit for him and his sister all the time.
When I worked on the Everyday Hero CT program, I was in business as a public relations consultant with my own LLC since 2007. Just before the start of the pandemic, I stepped away from business ownership to work for a small, global start-up company. Dream job. Amazing work. Huge results. But, as things often go with start-ups, super fast team expansion got ahead of profits forcing leadership to reorganize and cut staff. Less than three years later, my time there was done.
Missing my work as a consultant, I re-launched my business, now called LAURA WARD•CO. Missing my work with volunteer fire departments, I created Hero Story as a special division of LAURA WARD•CO.
PROFESSIONAL BIO
Having begun her career nearly 30 years ago in the non-profit sector, Laura is an exceptionally well-written, scrupulously detail-oriented public relations professional. She thrives on utilizing the written word, whether via press releases, social media platforms, by-lined articles, newsletters, or websites; creating and executing strategic public relations campaigns; fostering relationships with the media; multi-tasking; and meeting tight deadlines.
Laura’s broad industry experience encompasses such categories as addiction and recovery, emergency management and fire services, education, marketing, health care, banking, food and beverage, home furnishings, and more. Over the years she has worked with global, national, and regional brands, including McDonald’s, Ronald McDonald House Charities, This Naked Mind, SHE RECOVERS® Foundation, the International Association of Fire Chiefs, Garelick Farms, Bertucci’s, Northeast Utilities, The Avon Volunteer Fire Department, The Discovery Orchestra, Healing Meals Community Project, the Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame, and State of Connecticut agencies such as the Department of Revenue Services and Department of Public Health. Her efforts have earned placements in local, regional, national, and trade media, including Nightline and Good Morning America (ABC News), The TODAY Show and TODAY.com (NBC News), MSNBC, FOX News, The Weather Channel, Newsweek, Ten Percent Happier Podcast, NBCNews.com, TIME, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times, Huffington Post, Newsweek on Air, the Associated Press, Reader’s Digest, ELLE, Shape, and numerous industry publications.
Prior to serving as External Relations Manager at This Naked Mind, Laura owned and operated WardComm Public Relations, a public relations consulting company, for 13 years. Before that, she was employed by Glastonbury, Connecticut-based Cronin and Company, Inc., a full-service marketing communications agency. Laura began her public relations career at The Fairfield County Medical Association, a Trumbull, Connecticut-based non-profit trade association with over 1,800 physician members, where she oversaw and continually strengthened the Association’s governmental affairs program and public relations efforts, serving a dual role as Association spokesperson and as liaison between the Association and the Connecticut General Assembly.
Laura earned her bachelor of arts degree in public policy from Hamilton College. She is a founding member of the New England Chapter of the SHE RECOVERS® Foundation, and a past president of the Board of Directors of Ronald McDonald House Charities of Connecticut and Western Massachusetts. Laura has also been a guest lecturer in public relations writing at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut.
Highlights
Hero Story is a division of Laura Ward Company, LLC.