Hello! My name is Laura Skladzinski, and I’m very excited to be running for Town Trustee. Although I plan to meet as many of my neighbors as possible in person over the course of my campaign, I hope that this biography can give you some background on who I am, my values, and the experience I can bring to the Board of Trustees.

My Journey to Colorado

I grew up in Albany, New York, and went to college in Ithaca, where I earned my Bachelor’s degree at Cornell University. After college, I moved to Manhattan, where I worked in management consulting at Deloitte Consulting and then Pricewaterhouse Coopers. One of my best friends in New York moved to Arvada in 2009, and after visiting, I fell in love with Colorado. I moved to Broomfield to test the waters in 2013, and immediately knew that I could never live anywhere but Colorado.

When I began looking to buy a “forever home”, I quickly narrowed my search to only consider homes in Superior – and I was so grateful to become a homeowner here in 2014. I love the small-town vibe of our close-knit community, and I consider myself incredibly lucky to have found this amazing place!

One of my favorite days of the year is the fourth of July – I love running the Superior Mile, cheering for neighbors in the parade, and digging into the pancake breakfast in the park surrounded by friends. You can’t get that sense of community in Manhattan! But, for that matter, I think our town events are also fairly unique among Colorado suburbs. As Trustee, I want to see us continue to organize these community-building town events that bring us all together and keep our town feeling like a family.

My Career

I work full-time as a management consultant for Pricewaterhouse Coopers, where I am a Director in the Consumer Markets practice. Last year, I was named one of BizWest Magazine’s “40 Under 40” in Boulder Valley. My career is all about problem solving and making decisions – my clients come to me with potential new business opportunities, and it’s my job to evaluate the opportunity, develop and present a business case to the C-suite / Board of Directors, and then lay out a plan for successful implementation. I’m very used to quickly learning what I need to know in order to make big decisions and drive change, and I’m never afraid to admit that I don’t know something and need more information. As Trustee, I promise to bring these problem-solving skills to the many opportunities that come to our town. A great Board of Trustees needs to not only be proactive in developing a vision for the town’s future, but also flexible in evaluating the new opportunities that may warrant a course change.

In 2015, I took on a pro-bono project for the Colorado Innovation Network. Traveling the state to meet with business leaders and economic experts, I researched and wrote Talent in Colorado, a report detailing trends in education, technology, housing, and transportation, and laying out a vision for Colorado’s workforce of the future. The report included an introduction by Governor John Hickenlooper, who has publicly recognized me for my work in helping Colorado stay at the forefront of business and innovation. As Trustee, I will bring this knowledge to help Superior rise to the top as a great place for talent to live.

My Hobbies

In my free time, I love many typical Colorado outdoor activities: skiing, hiking, and running. I have written a running blog for ten years at 50by25.com, which includes personal stories as well as race reports from my quest to run a marathon in every U.S. state, which I accomplished in 2009, breaking the world record as the youngest woman to do so. I’d like to apply my social media savvy to my role as Trustee, regularly blogging about my thoughts on key decisions in an easy-to-understand format so that residents can better stay abreast of critical issues. I’ve heard from so many neighbors that they aren’t sure what’s going on with the town, and I’d like to improve the town’s digital footprint to make it easy for residents to access news and information virtually. In particular, I’d like to explore how we can allow people to call into town meetings and be able to voice opinions even if they can’t physically attend. It’s a big goal of mine to get more residents involved with the town!

I’m very passionate about helping the community, and currently volunteer regularly with a few organizations: Denver Rescue Mission (food service and one-on-one mentoring), Tutormate (tutoring second graders in reading), Freedom Service Dogs of America (caring for / fostering service dogs), the International Rescue Committee (helping new refugees settle into life in Colorado), and Boulder County Parks & Open Space (teaching children about local history). To make time for my responsibilities as Trustee, I plan to scale back on some of these volunteering commitments; representing our town is a top priority for me and I want to ensure I give it the time it deserves.

At home, I enjoy reading (I aim to read 100 books a year; you can see my reviews and recommendations here on Goodreads), playing piano, and cooking. I am co-organizer of the Superior “cookblog” club; we come together once a month for a potluck dinner, where we all choose recipes from the same cooking blog so we can form a well-rounded opinion of the blog. Let me know if you’d like to join us and I’m happy to invite you to our next event! I frequently host dinner parties at my home for friends and neighbors, and am also a regular attendee at the town’s First Fridays. I think the First Fridays are a wonderful opportunity to learn more about town issues and have candid discussions with Trustees and other residents; if elected, I look forward to continuing this tradition.

My Values

If it wasn’t evident from all of the above, I am extremely passionate about goal-setting and striving for continuous improvement.

“To reach a port, we must sail. Sail, not tie at anchor. Sail, not drift.”
– Franklin Delano Roosevelt

I believe in always having a goal, and measuring progress toward achieving it. If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it. I am definitely a planner to the extreme – always laying out a plan, a backup plan, and a backup for the backup plan. (Check out my Thanksgiving Excel, and ask me about the time the Superior Fire Department had to come to my house on Thanksgiving and I was still able to get the meal out on time with no stress!) I want to make sure that our Board of Trustees tackles impending decisions with a data-driven, thoughtful approach, and continues to revise our Comprehensive Plan so we have a clear vision for the future to guide our choices.

In both my work and personal life, honesty and transparency are my hallmarks – and they are qualities I believe are essential to being a good Trustee. If elected, I promise to openly share the data I have and my thought process, to provide a clear view into my decisionmaking. I can’t say that I won’t make mistakes, but I can promise you that I will always be quick to own up to them and identify a path to move forward.

I hope that this (long) biography has given you a clearer understanding of who I am. I’d love to meet with you and better get to know you in person! Click here to contact me and set up a date to chat.