About Lauri

SPEAKER, AUTHOR, ADVOCATE, ADVISOR, AND CO-FOUNDER & PRESIDENT, BEYOND THE BALLET BARRE & LJFP INC

Meet Lauri Fitz-Pegado

Lauri promotes equity, inclusion and support for marginalized communities engaged in the arts. She is President & Co-founder of Beyond the Ballet Barre Inc. (formerly The Collective). This 501 c(3) non-profit supports and expands opportunities for ballet teachers and students of color in the DC, Maryland, and Virginia (DMV) and beyond.

She pursued cultural and commercial diplomacy at the Voice of America and the U.S. Information Agency before becoming a U.S. diplomat serving in Mexico and the Dominican Republic. A former Assistant Secretary and Director General of the U.S. and Foreign Commercial Service, she managed 130 overseas and 90 domestic offices engaged in promoting US exports. Lauri was a senior executive at Hill and Knowlton and Gray and Company, and a partner at The Livingston Group. She was a senior executive at Iridium, LLC, a mobile satellite company, established by Motorola.

She now applies her communications, public relations, business, and leadership experience to mentoring, teaching ballet, advising dance institutions, promoting artists, writing, and board service.

A Jones-Haywood School of Dance alumna, Lauri performed with the Capitol Ballet, Vassar Dance Theater, and Ballet Santo Domingo. She was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa and has a B.A. cum laude from Vassar College, M.A from the Johns Hopkins University School for Advanced International Studies (SAIS) and speaks Spanish and Portuguese.

She serves on the boards of directors of The Washington Ballet; the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training (ADST); Center for Investigative Reporting (CIR); International Council Hillwood Museum and; Advisory Committee Prix de Lausanne. She is on the Advisory Board of the Ron Brown Scholars, is a Senior Advisor for the International Career Advancement Program (ICAP), and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the African Policy Group (APG), and the International Women’s Forum.

Her memoir, Dancing in the Dash: My Story of Empowerment, Diplomacy, and Resilience, was published by Bold Story Press in 2021. (https://linktr.ee/laurifitzpegado)

Her children and grandchildren live in Scotland and Angola.

With Former Secretary of Commerce Ronald H. Brown

Dancing at Ballet Santo Domingo

Launch Event for her Memoir

Current Board Affiliations and Memberships

  • The Washington Ballet

  • Center for Investigative Reporting/ Mother Jones

  • Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Board Member (ADST)

  • International Career Advancement Program Advisory Board Member (ICAP)

  • Member Council on Foreign Relations (CFR)

  • Member International Women’s Forum Member (IWF)

  • Africa Policy Group

  • Hillwood Museum

  • Prix de Lausanne

Former Board Affilations

  • Chesapeake Bay Foundation

  • Chair and member of the National Education Association Foundation

  • Vice-Chair and Member of Global Communities

  • Workers of Saint Alban’s Board Member (WSA)

  • Constituency for Africa (CFA)

  • Ron Brown Fellows Advisory Board Member (RBF)