March 2014 Profile: Laurel Scherer
By Moe White
True Passions: Her dogs, photography, and almost anything involving the outdoors.
Hidden Talent: Troubleshooting.
Biggest Indulgence: Snowboarding in Colorado.
Happiest Time in Her Life: Graduation from U.S.A.F. Academy, moving to Asheville and marrying her wife.
Support Network: Chosen family of long term friends.
Laurel’s Favorite Authors: Barbara Kingsolver, Jodi Piccoult, John Grisham, Dan Brown
Tenets of Life: Doing good work, building good relationships
As a child in Decatur, IL, Laurel Scherer was “motivated to prove what I could do, maybe because I was a girl. I had one younger sister, but no brother, and I didn’t like being told I couldn’t do something because I was a girl. I was determined to excel from an early age.”
Laurel owns Status Forward, a web development business, and serves on the board of Our VOICE. Both her business expertise and her community service reflect a determination to excel and a commitment to give back to her community.
The U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs was Laurel’s training ground for leadership. She graduated with a BS in engineering and her flight qualification.
“I actually did enjoy flying, being in control of a plane. That was an empowering experience. It’s so different from driving a car. Something about being up in the air.” What she didn’t like was the Air Force version of flying. It was “too mechanical, there were so many checklists.”
So she decided not to pursue a career as a pilot; instead, after graduation she joined the Air Force Office of Public Affairs. Her first post was at Charleston AF Base, and for eight years she worked in internal communications, media relations, and community relations, ending up at the Pentagon managing the consolidation of 900 base websites into one central Air Force site.
At that point Laurel planned to move to Colorado to work in web development or software management. But her prospective partner lived in Asheville. “And we decided to stay here for a couple of years,” she says.
Launching a business—and a career
Scherer started a business doing outdoor sports photography, primarily for a whitewater rafting service and the Wolf Laurel ski resort. But when the ski resort “decided they had no use for us anymore”—after her Massachusetts “gay wedding” became public—“that’s when I launched my web design and development business.”
She quickly gained a reputation for quality work, and built her portfolio with pro bono work for Big Brothers Big Sisters; today she has 35 to 40 contract clients and another 50 to 100 for whom she does some work during any year.
She’s also expanding the business to a five-person team. “If you do too many things you can’t be good at any one thing. I’m specializing in the development side, and working with a couple of designers, a part-time project manager, and a search engine optimization (SEO) person on a per-job basis. One person can’t really do it all.”
Our VOICE
Laurel serves on the board of Our VOICE, a non-profit crisis intervention and prevention agency that serves victims of sexual violence, age 13 through adult, in Buncombe County. Founded in 1974, the agency employs seven paid staff and over 50 volunteers.
Social media, with its instant feedback and reinforcement from peers, is one aspect of the web that has had unpredicted consequences, especially on young women.
“So many young girls are so worried about what everyone else thinks of them that they let that get in the way of what they think of themselves. A lot of it has to do with young women not knowing how to believe in themselves. Too many let other people tell them what to do.”
How does social media intensify that problem? With social media, she says, [people] “don’t think about how [criticism] might be perceived or affect young girl with self-confidence issues.”
One program of Our VOICE is specifically designed to combat that issue. Climbing Toward Confidence, which serves girls age 12-14, brings rock-climbing opportunities to girls who otherwise would not have access to the sport. Participants are paired with women mentors and together, they face their fears on the rock. Rock climbing contributes to fitness, fosters body awareness, hones problem-solving skills, and helps girls develop their sense of judgment, set boundaries, and make decisions—including the awareness that their bodies and identities are worth protecting.
That message for girls—believe in yourself—is coupled with other suggestions from Scherer. “Surround yourself with people who tell you that you can, and work to prove wrong those who tell you that you can’t. This can be very empowering.
“Don’t be afraid to fail along the way, it will only make you better next time… if it’s a little scary, it’s probably worth doing! Latch on to something positive from someone you look up to; I always remember my dad telling me at a young age that I could be anything I wanted to be; it has been a mantra for me.”
And, finally, “I think that not taking yourself too seriously and being able to laugh at yourself is very important.”
