Board Member Highlight

Lorie Thompson grew up in Southern California and received her BA from UCLA. After volunteering in her daughter’s classroom, she discovered her passion for education and returned to school to complete her Master’s and Doctoral degrees in educational leadership and policy studies. She served as an elementary teacher, Title I Coordinator, Special Education administrator, and STEM Magnet School principal at schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Since 2016, Lorie and her family have resided in Olympia, where she has continued her passion for supporting students as the Capital STEM Network and Career Connect Washington Regional Network Director at ESD 113. In 2021 she created the Capital STEM Alliance, a five-county, cross-sector coalition that expands STEM career pathway opportunities for all youth in the region. Her vision is to increase cradle to career access and equity for marginalized youth. She serves on the Board of the Puget Sound Estuarium, and the South Sound CTE Advisory Council.

“As a regional network made up of many leaders with many voices, the Capital STEM Alliance is well-known and respected as a convener that counts all stakeholders, listens carefully to all voices, takes time to deeply understand complex relationships, works to dismantle silos, and deftly but steadily builds trust, through collective action. Our goal is clear, and our work is noble: to co-create a shared set of goals and objectives that will offer every one of our region’s youth multiple pathways toward college, career, and life opportunities.”