Meet a Nasty Woman: 5 Questions with Elizabeth Cronise McLaughlin
Meet Elizabeth Cronise McLaughlin. Elizabeth is a celebrated career coach, fearless entrepreneur, single mom, and Nasty Woman. She is the CEO of Gaia Project Consulting, LLC, and the Founder of The Gaia Project for Women’s Leadership.
Elizabeth has a storied track record of success as a Wall Street lawyer, serial CEO and entrepreneur, and high-powered executive coach. After a fifteen-year career as a full-time Wall Street securities litigator and trial lawyer, Elizabeth founded Gaia Project Consulting, LLC, an executive consulting and coaching firm that serves senior executives across tech, finance, banking, law, fashion, healthcare, non-profit and consulting, propelling its clients to new heights of growth and professional alignment. Five years later, she founded The Gaia Project for Women’s Leadership, offering virtual and live programming to grow New Paradigm Women’s Leadership worldwide.
It is Elizabeth’s mission in life to transform traditional paradigms of leadership so that all leaders, and women leaders, in particular, can lead lives that allow them to share their gifts, achieve epic success on their own terms, and lead lives in alignment with their deepest values– and to change the world as a result. She was a New Yorker for more than 17 years but recently relocated to Southern California with her six and eight-year-old children, and their crazy French bulldog, Sophie.
What makes you a Nasty Woman?
I fight for justice relentlessly.
Share an experience that shaped your views or helped get you involved in activism.
I grew up in a small, gay-friendly town in Pennsylvania sixty miles from NYC that was decimated during the AIDS crisis. My activism was shaped by watching people I knew and loved suffer because our government didn’t value their lives. I credit ACT-UP and the movement to divest from South Africa in the 80s as the primary forces behind my activism.
What advice do you have for people who want to help enact change and push progress but don’t know how to get involved?
Every voice matters at this moment in time, and every skill. Art, music, food, movement building-- every one of us has a unique skill set that can be applied to effect change in big and small ways.
If you could look into the future, 10 years from now, and see that real progress has been made, what does that look like to you?
An end to white supremacist patriarchy, full stop.
Share with us a favorite wine moment or memory, or pairing.
I spent about five days in San Sebastian, in the Basque region of Spain, about ten years ago, where I was introduced to Txakoli-- a fizzy light wine that the locals eat with tapas. I spent an afternoon hopping from tapas bar to tapas bar sharing glasses along the way. It was one of the most rewarding food and wine experiences of my life.
The NASTY WOMAN WINE you appear on the label of is called Pave the Way Chardonnay. Please share what it means to you to pave the way.
To me, Paving the Way means creating a light along the path in conjunction with others. We must be arm-in-arm right now as those who are creating a new vision of what this nation can and should be-- with equity and equality and freedom for all. I’m proud to do this work with so many amazing women-- and particularly Black and indigenous women-- who have shined a light on the path for all of us.
Tell us more about the Gaia Project.
My company, The Gaia Project for Women’s Leadership, offers virtual and corporate programming on advancing intersectional women’s leadership worldwide. Learn more here.
As well, I broadcast five days a week on law and politics, Resistance Live, over on Patreon.
Elizabeth is the Nasty Woman featured on our flagship wine Pave The Way Chardonnay.
Follow Elizabeth on Social Media: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram