When the COVID-19 Pandemic pumped the brakes on Fortify Associates, LLC spring 2020 projects, Principal and Founder, Laura De Veau took time to focus on two areas completion of her Ed.D and utilizing her strategic, training and organizational skills in working for several political campaigns.
With the Biden/Harris campaign, De Veau co-led a team of hundreds of digital volunteers who used social media to boost the message of the campaign. This effort put De Veau's strategic and training skills to the test, where she optimized her use of communication and training delivery on new virtual platforms as well as taking the Fortify Online Learning platform and making it a hub for volunteer onboarding and training. De Veau's track record resulted in her being hired by the successful Jon Ossoff for Senate campaign serving as a Digital Organizing Coordinator. De Veau is excited to take these skills and apply them to Fortify Associate's clients where she believes relational organizing and social media can be applied to a variety of causes and institutions.
In April of 2021, De Veau successfully defended her doctoral thesis: "What happens to us when we close? An Interpretive Phenomenological Study of Mount Ida College Students' lived experiences after institutional closure" from Northeastern University. Dr. De Veau is currently preparing opportunities to present her findings as part of webinars, conferences as well as submitting to journals.
This week, Dr. De Veau, launched two new efforts utilizing forward facing applications to reach Higher Education professionals, consumers of Higher Education and those interested in Higher Education News. The first, a weekly live podcast, "Office Hours With Dr. De Veau" on the Fireside podcast platform.
Fireside is a new podcast platform for the next generation -- a platform built for listeners to come together in real-time, for story telling, conversations and real interaction. Fireside is co-founded by Mark Cuban and Falon Fatemi who have collaborated successfully in tech in the past. "Office Hours with Dr. De Veau" puts storytelling front and center where De Veau brings back former students, colleagues and experts to discuss, debate, and dialogue in a public forum. She looks forward frank discussions about Higher Education news as well as hearing guests speak to how campus life brought their real life purpose.
The show will be airing live on Thursdays at 3:30 PM (Eastern) on Fireside. The platform is in beta version and currently only available in iOS (iPhone and iPad).
Following the live shows, De Veau will be taking to her newsletter in Substack, "What's Up in The Academy?" to reflect on the show, and provide more insight into the Higher Education news of the day as well as distribute replays of the show. Paid subscriptions are available through Substack which has become an inclusive hub for long-form writers. Be sure to subscribe to this newsletter and get the latest delivered straight to your in-box.
Fortify Associates, LLC is unique in the higher education, not-for-profit, and public service market. They provide comprehensive workshops, program reviews and project management services with a combination of in-person and virtual delivery. Fortify Associates is committed to creating experiences that are unique to the needs and culture of each of their clients. Fortify Associates wants to elevate your organization and help you optimize your workplace.