PBN Business Women Awards 2026
INDUSTRY LEADER | EDUCATION:
Laura Baldwin, Roger Williams University chief marketing officer
Laura Baldwin, chief marketing officer at Roger Williams University, helped rebrand the university’s new direction when she joined the school more than two years ago. The university has a liberal arts core and various professional programs, with focuses in law and society and marine science. It has campuses in Bristol and Providence.
“I think branding can shape a culture of an organization, whether it’s an institution, a university, a higher education, whatever it might be,” she said.
Baldwin has specifically helped rebrand the university’s School of Law and the Extension School. The rebrand has led to increased enrollment for the law school and growth for the university’s extension programs. At the same time, she led a rebrand of the university’s website, which similarly led to additional website traffic and engagement with programs. Prospective students could more easily find the university and understand its program offerings.
Baldwin has a Master of Business Administration and a graphic design degree. Though she started her career in graphic design, her focus eventually shifted to marketing.
“Over time, I was very pulled towards the storytelling side of how organizations present themselves,” Baldwin said. “I went very much from the visual into how do people connect.”
As a storyteller, marketing ended up being the perfect place for her to use all of her skills in creativity and business.
“I started to learn about marketing, and it wound up being the place where it all came together ... the creativity, the strategy and the storytelling,” she said. “I rounded myself out from a business perspective so that I could see the big picture and think about how I wanted to shift and evolve my career.”
Her role at Roger Williams is all about connecting people and solving problems, Baldwin said.
“I’m thinking about strategic problem-solving, other days I’m doing long-term planning, other days I’m looking at different pieces of how I bring the university together,” she said.
Baldwin works on pulling branding and messaging together so the “university voice comes to life,” she said.
For people who want to get into marketing, Baldwin advised working on a network to stay connected with others, and take any opportunities that help you build skills, even if they aren’t in marketing.
“Building and shaping your network is what I see and what I say is one of the biggest investments you can make in your future because you can stay connected with people now very much online and keep those relationships active,” she said.
Baldwin is proud of helping to overhaul the university’s brand and image.
“I think I’m most proud that the university has embraced it, that we’ve started to apply it and use it,” she said. “It’s resonating and that’s what’s showing me that all of this work really does speak to the institution itself. At the end of the day, that’s the foundation of it all.”
Baldwin has created a space for students to work in marketing through internships and work study. Opportunities include hands-on experience, with students working on the back end of the university website, taking photos, or creating social media campaigns. Students are also conducting interviews and writing stories, she said.
Baldwin said she has her “finger on the pulse of the students.”
She’s also teaching in the university’s School of Business, she said, which is another way she’s helping students understand how to work on real-world projects.
“It’s a win if I can give them the real-world experience to build their portfolio and then they develop those connections as they carry on, as they move on from Roger Williams,” she said.
For students, faculty and staff, she’s helping to build culture, continuity and branding, she said. One major goal is to help people feel more connected to opportunities.
“Truly, if people start to feel that they’re part of something bigger, that brand can help shape that culture,” Baldwin said.
