Laura Lewis Mandeles joined the firm in 1992, bringing broad knowledge of the nonprofit sector and an array of skills honed in the nonprofit and funding sectors. She spent nine years at National Public Radio, serving as Senior Development Associate for Cultural Programming, and raising millions of dollars from private and public-sector funders. As a consultant, Laura has worked with a range of organizations on planning and resource, program, board and proposal development.

Laura has conducted strategic planning processes for the Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy, The Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, New England Foundation for the Arts, International Quilt Study Center and the Smithsonian American Art Museum. She has led development assessments and campaign feasibility studies for such organizations as the Children’s Defense Fund, People For the American Way and The Alliance for Young Artists and Writers. Other clients include the Rockefeller Brothers Fund’s Pocantico Conference Center and The Alliance for American Quilts, which she helped guide for more than a decade from a start-up through a founder transition.

Laura graduated cum laude from Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, earned a Master's Degree in urban studies from Occidental College and received a Management Fellowship from the NEA. She was principal writer of Americanizing the American Orchestra, and authored “Business Topics for Artists,” an award-winning independent study course for Indiana University.