About Lauri

Lauri SoJourner is an experienced facilitator, teacher, and nonprofit leader. She has worked in retreat and camp ministry and higher education and has held numerous board and other volunteer positions locally, regionally, and nationally.

Lauri received her BA in English/Professional Communications and Certificate in Nonprofit Management from Winthrop University and her MA in Student Affairs Administration from Ball State University. She is currently working towards ICF certification and has received 75 hours of training from Holmes Coaching School Coach Approach Skills Training. A lifelong learner, Lauri studies the Enneagram and Family Systems Theory as a way to better understand how people think, interact, and motivate.

For over 17 years, Lauri worked in nonprofit camp and conference ministry. She served as executive director at Gravatt Camp and Conference Center in Aiken, SC and Lake Logan in Canton, NC. She served on the Board of Directors for the Episcopal Camps and Conference Centers for six years, and was the organization’s first female president. She received the 2019 Peter Bergstrom Leadership Award, which recognizes a deeply committed member of the ECCC community who has advanced the cause of Episcopal Camps and Conference Centers through mentoring, advocacy, and innovative programming.

Prior to working in camp and conference, Lauri was – among other titles – assistant dean of students at Winthrop University, where she developed and taught a service learning course and worked with others to develop and teach a freshman seminar course. She was the recipient of several regional and national awards for her leadership.

A skilled teacher, Lauri is a faculty member for Compass Points, an ecumenical certificate program for camp and retreat leaders, run through Columbia Theological Seminary. She regularly leads SimSoc for county leadership groups and works one-on-one and with groups to build leadership skills, develop strategic plans, and build organizational capacity. She has also served in interim director roles.

Lauri is active in her community, where she currently serves on the Board for Haywood Pathways Center and is an Ambassador for the Haywood County Chamber of Commerce. She has served on the Vestry at Grace Church in the Mountains and on the Board for the Haywood County Tourism Development Authority. She is mom to 4+2 amazing humans, two needy dogs, and two cats. She lives in Haywood County with her husband, Travis, her youngest teenage child, and said beasts. Lauri enjoys reading, yoga, watercolor, collage, travel, and coming up with excuses for drinking wine with friends. She thinks sending a child to camp is the best investment you can make in the future.