Laura D. Gauld, Head of School, Hyde-Woodstock; Executive Director, Hyde Boarding School Initiative

Co-author of The Biggest Job We’ll Ever Have
Head of School, Hyde-Woodstock
Executive Director, Hyde Boarding School Initiative

With more than 27 years of classroom and public speaking experience, Laura Gauld has earned a national reputation as a top motivational speaker on parenting, family dynamics, and character education. She has been featured on PBS, in her own parenting series on NBC in Portland, Maine, and numerous television, radio programs, and publications throughout the country.

In April 2006, Laura became the head of school at Hyde School in Woodstock, CT and, in 2008, she was named Executive Director of the Hyde Boarding School Initiative.

Together with her husband, Malcolm, she is the co-author of the groundbreaking book The Biggest Job We’ll Ever Have (Scribner). Unlike other education books that focus on the child, The Biggest Job We’ll Ever Have focuses on a child’s primary teacher–the parent. The Gaulds explain that parents have an enormous impact on how their child approaches education and life. They are currently writing their next book.

Formerly, Laura directed the Family Education curriculum for Hyde Schools–where parental participation in their child’s education is mandatory–and a key component in advancing the character development of students and their families.

In addition to Laura’s experience as a teacher, administrator, and parenting coach, she has created national programs for families–Family Workshops in the Wilderness, a family renewal program that “slips in the family work” amid the fun of hiking, canoeing, and other outdoor activities at Hyde’s 600-acre Black Wilderness Preserve in Eustis, Maine. She has also created The Biggest Job® workshops, popular and upbeat seminars on parenting and community-building, offering practical ideas and experiences in an informal, interactive format.

Laura has overseen many of Hyde’s parent and teacher training programs in public schools. She has been active with these efforts in New York, Connecticut, North Carolina, Colorado, California, Florida, and Washington, DC. Laura also serves as a consultant to school and community groups throughout the country.

Laura is a three-year resident of the Woodstock, CT area, where she is active in the community and the writer of a parenting column in the Putnam Town Crier, with topics such as “Map & Compass: Understanding our Job as Parents,” “Raising Children to be Accountable to Life,” and “We are the parents — aren’t we?”

A native of Beverly, MA, Laura attended Hyde School in Bath, ME as a teenager. She received a BA from the University of Southern Maine. The mother of three children, she lives in Bath with her family, when she is not at her school in Woodstock, CT.