About Charlotte Law

Yes. I'm Charlotte Law. My current role is owner of High Impact Training and Coaching Systems. I graduated in 2011 with the Mu Prime Cohort.

There's an expression. Before enlightenment, chopping wood, carrying water. After enlightenment, chopping wood, carrying water. So, in other words, the program changed the trajectory of my life, not at all in the sense that I'm still doing the same thing I was doing professionally before I joined the program, but at the same time it changed everything, and it changed my life in many different ways. And so if I look at all of the different segments of my life, I would say the biggest way in which it changed my life was enriched my life with the number of relationships I've forged, both personally and professionally. The members of our alumni have become some of my best friends in life and have filled my soul with meaning, but also professionally that I have been able to develop skills to remain steady.

And what I mean by that is, when you're in the helping profession, people with whom you work are often navigating some of the most difficult aspects of their life, often professionally, but it impacts them very deeply. And when you are performing the role of consultant or trainer, educator, supporter, coach, to be able to remain steady and to help someone navigate through that and not become rocked yourself, is one of the most difficult aspects of our work. And without this program, I don't think that I would be able to do the work that I do today in the way in which I do it. And so professionally, it's changed the trajectory of my life in that way. And then last, I'm very involved in our volunteer work with our alumni and to be able to give back in some small way to what this University of Pepperdine and the program specifically has given me, I can never pay it back.

This is a tough question, because I recognize that where I am in my life, I'm not going to be the next Tony Bennett and I'm not going to be the next Edgar Schein. I recognize that I'm just a small little droplet of water in a big, big ocean. And so, I would hope that my legacy would be one that all of the relationships in my life, both personally and professionally, that I was able to be a good partner, a good peer, a good friend, and that as a result of our relationship that hopefully their life is a little bit better and that would be a good legacy.

Well, there's a few things. I would say just building on the work that I'm doing in a volunteer capacity with the MSOD program. We've been very involved in a program called Thepowerofod.org, and our highest hope for that initiative is to bring greater awareness to the broader community about the field of organization development and also about Pepperdine and it's program, MSOD. And so my hope is in part that we're able to meet that big audacious goal of greater awareness. And so we're very involved in that program, that initiative. And so that's on the volunteer side.

I think on the personal side and the professional side, I've been working for the last number of years on writing a children's book, specifically aimed at young girls that we often call tweens. So, moving from childhood into their teenage years and beyond, and how difficult that transition in life can often be. And through that book, my hope is, is that it will enable young girls to understand the experiences that they're having and to be able to draw upon some tools to better equip themselves to move into their teenage years more effectively. So, my hope is, is that I move forward and successfully finish that project in the next 10 years.

I think that the gift of the relationships, both personally and professionally that one forms, enables people to do better work, and that often when one joins the program, they may expect that this is a two-year program, and I pay my tuition, and I follow the requirements, and I finish my thesis, and all of the knowns, and not recognize that there are some unknowns in terms of how much more effective and equipped one can be to engage in this work as a result of the relationships that are made.