Laura Lane Taylor

Laura Lane Taylor, J.D., Sunshine Enterprises

Laura Lane Taylor is the Managing Director of Programs for Sunshine Enterprises, whose mission is to empower high-potential entrepreneurs living in under-resourced neighborhoods to grow their businesses and transform their communities. Laura’s role at Sunshine includes serving on the leadership team, managing and training instructors, coaches and staff who implement the Community Business Academy (CBA), Business Acceleration Services (BAS) and Co-Work programming for entrepreneurs in Sunshine’s eight markets – South, West and North sides of Chicagoland; Construction Trades, Property Developers, Tech & Digital, Foodpreneur and Arts & Makers. Laura also represents Sunshine in a number of entrepreneurial ecosystem initiatives in the Chicagoland area. Sunshine Enterprises has over 1700 graduates of the CBA and has contributed to over 300 new business starts and seen a revenue increase of 104% from intake with existing businesses. A graduate of the Community Business Academy, Laura has developed and implemented other adult participatory training methodologies in community, seminary and vocational school settings. As a national trainer with the Rising Tide Network, Laura works with instructors from across the country implementing the Rising Tide model. Laura was a Coleman Delegate to Experiential Classroom (EC) in 2019 and has presented at EC four times . Laura is a graduate of the J.P. Morgan Chase Resurgence Accelerator and the University of Chicago Booth School Ignite cohort. Laura is a trained lawyer, highly regarded community development practitioner, community organizer and has managed large numbers of public service employees. She is experienced in helping to build start-up institutions, community and civic engagement, as well as community-based digital and information technology initiatives. Laura is a 1997 fellow of Leadership Greater Chicago and recent civic engagements include being a director of the Coleman Foundation and board member of the Network of Woodlawn. Laura has extensive background in nonprofit and public sector management including ten (10) years in city and county government and eight (8) years in community economic development. Laura received her B.A. in International Relations with honors from Lake Forest College and J.D. from Northwestern Pritzker School of Law.