Laura Sánchez-Parkinson

Senior Program Officer
Laura Sánchez-Parkinson

Laura Sánchez-Parkinson is the Senior Program Officer for Peer Learning Communities at Panorama. In this role, she builds and fosters authentic and impactful learning communities to inform and advance change across the social and philanthropic sector. Her team works on the Collaborative Learning from Impact Philanthropy initiative to promote peer learning and knowledge-sharing among grant recipients and advances research on the unprecedented giving of MacKenzie Scott.

Prior to Panorama Laura was the director of programs, partnerships, and research at The Steve Fund, a nonprofit organization that promotes the mental health and well-being of young people of color. During the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Laura mobilized funders, community leaders, educators, mental health practitioners, and researchers to provide evidence-based and timely virtual programs and services to mitigate the mental health risks caused by the pandemic and ongoing racial injustices.

Previously, Laura was the assistant director of programs and development at the National Center for institutional Diversity at the University of Michigan where she oversaw efforts to leverage the expertise of over 1,000 multidisciplinary scholars from across the nation to inform and influence decision-making on social issues. This included convenings, publications, and campaigns for funders, educators, and administrators to advance a host of issues including educational access and equity, social determinants of health, voting rights, reproductive justice, and environmental racism.

Laura’s approach to building impactful collaborations is informed by her understanding of the deep-rooted systems of inequality within groups, organizations, and our society, and aims to advance collective impact towards justice. Laura earned a BA in organizational studies and sociology with a minor in community action and social change and a MA in higher education management and organizations from the University of Michigan.

Laura grew up in Mexico and migrated to a farming community in Michigan at the age of 8. She and her partner are raising two Jamaican-Mexican-American young kids who keep them curious and busy!

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