Laura Lynch is a life-long writer and musician. She is the only child of two loving, creative people who raised her to be as independent, imaginative and resilient as they were. From an early age, Laura (known as Lori to her family) entertained herself by pretending to be Batman, Superman, Johnny Quest or Haji on a regularly rotating basis. So committed to the roles was she that she would only answer to the name of whatever character she'd adopted for the day. This made for interesting exchanges with strangers in the grocery store: "Oh, my, what a beautiful little girl! What's your name sweetie?" they'd ask. "Batman," Laura would reply, much to her mother's chagrin.

Laura's imagination continued to evolve and soon took the shape of writing and composing: her first poem and song were penned at age 6. Neither were good but they certainly were indicative of the trajectory of her life. Laura was known as a tomboy, and eschewed dolls and frilly toys in favor of toy trucks, building blocks and generally anything that involved being active, outside and the boss. By the age of 10, having been denied the chance to play boys’ baseball, she joined the first official girls' softball league in the small town where she grew up.

Around this time, she also discovered a dusty old guitar under the guest bed and started plucking out tunes and soon, chords. Songs followed, as did poems and more stories. By age 12 Laura was taking guitar lessons, and soon joined the junior high school's stage band. By eighth grade, Laura had won a writing contest in the short story category sponsored by the University of Missouri-Columbia, nd placed first and second in the district music contest. She was also listed in Who's Who of Music — an actual hard-bound book — in 1976.

Laura continued to study music and writing, doing both throughout high school and college. Her first job was as a technical writer at the company where her father worked. She found the work not at all creative but very exciting, "a puzzle to be solved every day." She soon made the leap to marketing writer for a software company, and eventually joined a small ad agency as a copywriter. Here her career flourished, and as she moved from agency to agency, she rose in the ranks from copywriter to writer/producer to creative director to vice president and brand strategist.

In 2010, Laura started her own agency, Lynchpin Ideas, a strategic branding and creative communications firm. As a certified woman-owned business enterprise, her company is proud to have launched the careers of many talented young women. When she's not at the helm of the company or writing blogs and recording podcasts for Dementia, Dammit!™, Laura can be found playing pickleball, golf, working out, playing music and riding her Harley Davidson. Laura resides in Kansas City, Missouri with her husband Tim, her lighthouse in every storm. She is an overtly proud "other mother" to son Patrick.

Learn more about how her parent’s dementia journey unfolded. >