Alumna Profile: Laura Gates '72

Wellesley College Alumnae Association President
2006 - 2009

Laura Daignault Gates ’72, the new president of the Wellesley College Alumnae Association, recalls the time she almost didn’t go to a Wellesley alumnae event. She was a principal in the Chicago office of the consulting giant McKinsey & Company, and her schedule was packed. As she hemmed and hawed about attending, her husband put it to her straight. “Oh, please go,” he said. “You’re so much nicer when you come home.”

Gates chortles at the story—laughter punctuates many of her conversations—but she also uses it to explain why she is so involved with Wellesley and WCAA activities. “When I was working with McKinsey, 99 percent of my waking hours were spent with men,” she says. For her, alumnae events were then (and still are) “an opportunity to be with really capable, smart, successful women. They help me get my perspective back.” Wellesley’s greatest gift to her, she says, is “a connection to a remarkable group of women that lasts a lifetime. I’m in the clubs and the Association because it’s a multigenerational group. It’s different from just coming back to your reunion.”

Gates replaces Ellen Goldberg Luger ’83, who completed her term as president in June. Looking ahead to her three years as WCAA president, Gates hopes to get the message out about the benefits of connecting to other alumnae through the Association. “I want people to get as much value from it as I get, and I suspect some alumnae aren’t,” she says. She’s particularly interested in building on the momentum of last fall’s conference for African-American, Latina, Asian, and Native American alumnae and students—in finding ways for the Association to meet the needs of an ever-more diverse alumnae body and to help all alumnae feel more welcome.

“We also have a very large alumnae group that’s not in the United States,” she says. “We’re going to be trying to figure out how to keep those people more connected to the College and to each other.”

Gates believes that alumnae have an important role in making connections with students, both in recruiting them for Wellesley and mentoring them. “[We need to make] alumnae more accessible to the whole student body and get students involved with the Association earlier,” she says. “If you think about it—this community of interconnected generations—these students are clearly part of it.”

Gates brings a wealth of for-profit and nonprofit management to the WCAA president’s role. With an M.B.A. from Harvard, she focused on organizational effectiveness and strategy at McKinsey and Company. More recently, she spent six years as vice president for museum affairs at Chicago’s Field Museum, where she oversaw exhibits, educational programs, stores and restaurants, and marketing and public-relations efforts.

Much of Gates’ time now is devoted to Wellesley and to nonprofit board service. She is vice chair of the South Carolina Coastal Conservation League and sits on the boards of Chicago Wilderness magazine and the Albert Schweitzer Fellowship. And of course, Gates has long experience in the Wellesley arena, having served as first vice-president of the WCAA, co-chair of the Business Leadership Council, president of the Chicago Wellesley Club, Annual Giving representative, and numerous other roles.

As much as Gates is about service and working hard, she’s also about fun. There’s the wry sense of humor and the laughter, which spill out frequently without any warning. There’s the dog, an Irish terrier named Della Street, who has entertained guests in the Gates home by bouncing three or four feet straight into the air. And as the dog’s name might indicate, there’s the passion for mystery novels and—most importantly—Nancy Drew. Gates collects first editions of Nancy Drew books and reads them regularly. Why? “For relaxation, stress relief. When you read a Nancy Drew, you are 10 years old sitting under an apple tree in the summer time,” she says. “She’s independent. She’s smart. She can solve problems. She’s resourceful. She can arrange flowers. She can do it all.”

Gates brings a lot of the Girl Sleuth to the president’s role. She’s independent. She’s smart. She can solve problems. She’s resourceful. Only time will tell whether she’ll be able to arrange the flowers at the WCAA annual meeting.