Announcing the award Head of School Peter Hutton said, “In her career as a nurse, teacher, and as an elected legislator, Laurie Harding has demonstrated a deep commitment to serving the needs of others.” Serving her third term in office, Laurie is a Democrat from the town of Lebanon, where she has lived for the past 25 years with her family (husband Peter Mason, a family physician, and their children, Sara and David). She holds a bachelor’s degree in nursing from Syracuse University and a master’s in community health nursing from Boston University. In the New Hampshire House she chairs Executive Department and Administration Committee.
Prior to her election, in 2004, Laurie chaired the Lebanon Democrats and was politically active on community health issues. She worked as a registered nurse and was an assistant professor of nursing at Colby-Sawyer College. Since 1998, she has served as a staff nurse, regional director and director of education and outreach of the nonprofit Visiting Nurse & Hospice of Vermont and New Hampshire. She currently serves on the boards of Headrest (crisis hotline) and Service Link (resources for senior citizens and disabled adults), and is a past board member of WISE (supporting victims of domestic and sexual violence), the Healthy New Hampshire Foundation and the New Hampshire Nurses Foundation.