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Director of Chancellor Events and Engagement, CU Denver

When she started her new role at CU Denver earlier this month, Laurel Harman wasn’t just saying goodbye to the place she went to school, or where she got her first full-time job. 

“I pretty much grew up on the Boulder campus,” Laurel said. Her mother spent 33 years working on campus, retiring as senior associate registrar last year, and “I spent almost every summer here. I knew this was where I wanted to be—it was the only school I applied to.” 

And when she arrived, she already had a professional path in mind, following a career exploration assignment she did as a high school junior. 

“My classmates wanted to be doctors, scientists, all STEM-based things,” she said. “Those all sounded like things I would hate.”

Her classmates reminded her she was an incredible event planner, whether it was soccer shindigs or her Sweet 16 party. She got an internship with Omni Hotels while still in high school that allowed her to get a taste of life as an event planner—the first work experience on a résumé that was already getting crowded by the time she graduated from Leeds.

“Something I’m really proud of was being able to balance multiple jobs and responsibilities, taking every opportunity that was given to me and making the most out of it,” Laurel said. 

Turns out, saying yes to everything is great experience for an event planner, especially when she starts her own business before going to Leeds full time. Page Turning Events—a play on her maiden name, Page—owed much of its success over five years to the school, and not only to the referral system that put several Leeds weddings on her plate.

“Having the career team to talk to was so helpful, whether it was connecting me with other people in the industry or even just the opportunity to talk to entrepreneurs about what it takes to start your own company,” she said. 

Laurel joined Leeds full time in 2016, eventually rising to become assistant director of event experiences in the school’s advancement department, but her greatest challenge came in early 2020, when the pandemic made the future of events highly uncertain. 

Finding ways to stay innovative

“I questioned whether I wanted to continue this, as a career, if events were going to stay virtual—because who knew for how long that was going to go on,” she said. But she managed to stay innovative, engaging the community through events like virtual trivia at a time when students and alumni felt isolated. 

“That goes back to my education—just learning that if you encounter a problem, you need to take it head on,” she said. “You look at all your options but need to keep moving forward. Once you stand still, you become irrelevant.” 

At Leeds, Laurel was responsible for creating guidance and infrastructure around events, anticipating problems and ensuring excellent experiences. That’s what she’s most looking forward to at CU Denver, as well as taking on a smaller portfolio of high-visibility events, like commencement.

When she’s not planning the next big event, Laurel volunteers as a dog foster parent with RezDawg Rescue, which relocates animals in the Four Corners region. A lifelong dog lover, she got involved during the pandemic, when she felt she’s be able to give extra attention to a rescue pet. 

“Being at home in COVID, I didn’t feel like I was giving back as much through my work,” Laurel said. “Finding another venue to do that was important to me.”

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