Laura Adkins

Board Member

An environmental justice activist for over 30 years, Ms. Adkins attended George Washington University ‘s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, majoring in Art Psychotherapy. An 18 month internship at St. Elizabeth’s Hospital, in WDC, allowed her to work with the criminally insane. Adding to her unique education, Ms. Adkins spent 1981 and 82 volunteering in Hollywood, partnering with celebrities and the End Hunger Network, training in media and community outreach and education regarding world hunger issues.

This focus became the basis for her decades work with the homeless. As a family and group therapist, she established MAGIK, (Movement & Acquisition of Gifts in Kind), a national, environmental jobs program employing over 500 homeless persons in 13 years. MAGIK distributed over $44 million in goods and materials to over 9000 organizations world wide. Before writing her first book, “The Search for Shelter Workbook,” published by the American Institute of Architects, which providing architects, community leaders, and developers with design guidelines to produce effective housing for 16 populations of homeless people. She also Edited, “Prison Design Exhibition 1990-2000,” for AIA. Since 2004, she’s worked for a foundation, Foster Care to Success, managing federal and State funds for educating foster youth who’ve aged out of care in the United States.