Laurel Grzesik-Mourad

Laurel Grzesik-Mourad (she/her) is Co-Founder and Chief Operations Officer of Manzanita Threads. She is especially interested in the intersection of social equality and climate change, creating sustainable, equitable solutions, and building community. At Manzanita Threads, Laurel works to help people make the links between climate, over-consumption, and social isolation in their own lives by creating space and sharing skills to reduce waste, embrace reuse, and connect with their communities.Laurel is also a community organizer and research consultant with a deep commitment to climate solutions, social equity, and immigrant rights. She is on the leadership team of Lakewood Indivisible. She has extensive experience building partnerships, managing programmatic and financial operations, working within complex regulatory environments, and overseeing the development of multistakeholder initiatives. Prior to joining Manzanita Threads, Laurel served as Senior Policy Analyst & Research Manager at the WORLD Policy Analysis Center at UCLA. Before WORLD, she spent time working in high level political and nonprofit consulting as well as at the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in London.