| | LAURA J. ISENSTEIN
President |
Ms. Isenstein became the owner of PROVIDENCE Associates in May 2006. Prior to that time she worked for three years as a full time Associate Principal Consultant along side Richard Waters. Her consulting experience includes managing facilities planning projects for Beaumont Library District, CA; Howard County Library, MD; Elbert County Library District, CO; the McKinney Public Library, TX; Parsippany Public Library, NJ; and the Sedona Public Library, AZ. She has completed strategic planning projects for the Enoch Pratt Public Library, MD; the Saint Paul Public Library, MN and the Elbert County Library District, CO along with developing and overseeing the implementation of strategic plans for the Des Moines Public Library, IA and the San Antonio Public Library, TX.
Laura has over thirty-one years of public library experience, the last nineteen of which have been in administrative and leadership positions. She retired in 2003 from her position as Director and Chief Executive Officer of the San Antonio Public Library System (TX) where she oversaw the operations of a 250,000 SF Central Library and 19 branch libraries and planned four additional branches, the last of which is now under construction. The library served a diverse population of 1.4 million. She managed a $20 million operating budget and a $14 million capital improvement budget.
She served as the director of The Public Library of Des Moines from 1995 - 2000, where she initiated a Facilities Study and Master Plan that resulted in the construction of a new 110,000 SF Central Library that opened in 2006 and the renovation and expansion of the five library branches. Previous experience was with the Baltimore County Public Library from 1972 - 1994.
Her consulting experience, in addition to her work with PROVIDENCE, includes serving as Facilitator/Trainer, Urban Library Council-Kellogg Foundation Future’s in the Balance Workshops (Chicago, Denver, San Diego, Atlanta, Pittsburgh) 1999, Facilitator/Trainer, Customer Service, Reference Communication Skills and Basic Reference Sources Workshops, projects for the United Technologies Company, Hartford, CT 1994 and 1998, and the Kent District Library, Grand Rapids, MI 1997.
Laura is a twenty-five year member of the American Library Association and the Public Library Association. She is an Associate Member of the Urban Libraries Council and served on their Board of Directors from 2000-2003. During that time period she led the Board and Capacity Building Strategy Group in the development of ULC’s Executive Leadership Institute now in its fourth year. She served as a Mentor for the TALL Texans Leadership Development Program in 2002. She received her MLS from the University of Michigan in 1972, and her BA from the same institution one year prior. She completed Management Training for Librarians and Advanced Management Training for Librarians at Miami University of Ohio, and ALA’s Fundraising institute offered by the Indiana University School of Philanthropy. | | |
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