A lawyer by education, Laura attended St. Olaf College and William Mitchell College of Law, clerked for a Federal District Court Judge, and was a project manager/editor at West Publishing before starting a family, at which point she decided to stay home with her daughter.   On a family trip to France in 2006, she became inspired by how the French rarely use paper and paper, turning instead to beautiful market baskets or reusable bags for shopping.  At that moment, the seeds of her basket business, called Jeanne Beatrice (Jeannebeatrice.com), were planted.  Believing others in the U.S. would love the baskets as much as she did, and that people genuinely want to make earth friendly choices,  Jeanne Beatrice, LLC was eventually born (Jeanne is her middle name and Beatrice is her daughter’s).  When she learned that the French import their baskets from all over the world, Laura decided to focus on Moroccan baskets, which she loved for their durability, naturalness, and beauty.  She and her family went to Morocco in 2007 to learn more about the basket weaving process, the people who weave them in small villages of the Atlas Mountains, and the country.   Her mission and passion immediately grew beyond the environment and baskets to include Morocco itself – the land and the people.  She now sells market baskets, retail and wholesale, to retail locations across the country, and has formed a partnership with the High Atlas Foundation (highatlasfoundation.org).  She is also very excited to be a partner of Lift Kids and greatly looks forward to helping build a Moroccan village.