Conversations with Laurie Reagan

Today we’d like to introduce you to Laurie Reagan.

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I hold a degree in Mass Communications from Miami University and have used my communication skills throughout my career to impact learning and organizational change

I began my professional career as an instructional designer for global consulting firms GP Strategies and CAP Gemini. I spent more than 20 years in the adult learning and process development field. My heart was never fully settled though and yearned to make a greater impact in my world.

I began my ministry career in 2007, alongside my professional career, as the Children’s Ministry Director for Loveland United Methodist Church. Working with the children of our congregation was a huge joy and I watched our program grow and flourish. I then moved into Adult Ministry and Communications Director. Organization, planning, program execution were my strong suits and it was wonderful to watch new programs begin and grow.

In 2016, my heart was suddenly pulled out of church ministry and into international mission work. This was a whole new world of experiences for me, but one my heart yearned for as new godparents to our godson, a Haitian orphan. My eyes were opened to trauma impacts, food insecurities, and global education deficits and challenges. I spent three summers in Haiti working alongside Back2Back Ministries to provide holistic care for orphaned children. My whole world tilted and working in a professional space no longer fit with my heart.

In 2018, my husband and I felt a calling to create a non-profit to raise money to give to global child initiatives. What started as a garage sale, became a physical thrift store and community outreach center and transitioned to local community support when we could no longer support our Haitian programs. Our non profit was called Clutter 2 Care and over the next 7 years, it grew to serve the 61 school districts in Southwest Ohio and over 5,000 students annually. In 2025, I was presented with the United Way’s Changemaker Award for the work our non-profit shared with our community.

Shortly after, my heart was called to go deeper and to build a community based support structure more local to those we served. I longed to find a small community and implement all I had learned into tangible support structures. Imagine if one community could eradicate hunger, homelessness and barriers to overcoming poverty. Then, it would ripple out to the surrounding communities.

I joined NEST in August 2025 as the Executive Director. NEST is the leading nutrition and academic support program for students in Loveland City Schools experiencing food insecurity and unstable home environments. In this position, I come face to face with the students in our community directly impacted. When we start with students, we begin changing the trajectory of an entire community. With full bellies, minds can open to learning and education overcomes poverty.

Strong student relationships allow us to become champions for students beyond the classroom. This opens doors for us to surround their families with care and learn more about their unique challenges. When challenges can be identified, solutions can be found.

In addition to NEST, I have also joined the Greater Loveland Kiwanis club as the Vice President and am a founding member of the new Family Support Coalition of Loveland.

Together these organizations, along with the dozens of other non-profits and churches in the greater Loveland area, are joining together in an orchestrated effort to reduce the cities at risk communities through support programming. The student is the main focus and the center of a wheel of services, locally provided and supported. This inward community structure helps to alleviate the burden on the county, state and federal support services. “We take care of our own” begins to return as a neighborhood mantra.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
No one prepared me for how emotionally demanding full-time ministry and mission work would be. Not only did I come face to face with realities that I had never experienced, but there were so many emotions, big feelings, fear and trauma impacts for which I wasn’t prepared.

Over time, I got trained and experience is a great educator!

Now, working so closely with students, I have a front row seat to the weight they are carrying on their little hearts. Some days this weight feels incredibly heavy. I have learned leadership in this space requires an intentional well of hope

Having gone from owning my own non-profit to being the Executive Director of an already successfully established non-profit came with a unique set of challenges, but I found focusing on the mission helped to alleviate those growing pains.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
As the Executive Director of NEST Community Learning Center, I oversee the daily operations, programming, fundraising and marketing. As an organization which is 80% volunteer-run, volunteer recruitment, training, and coordination are central to daily success

We work directly with Loveland City Schools and the LIFE Food Pantry. We are the only organization in Loveland to provide both nutrition and academic intervention programs for low income students.

Our Early Learning Program is a mobile classroom serving 3 -5 year olds in their neighborhood. For an hour, twice a week, our students have a hearty breakfast, practice early reading and math skills, learn socialization and play. The goal is to ensure our youngest learners are prepared for kindergarten.

Our After School Program is housed inside the Loveland Elementary School Media Center which allows students in 1st-4th grade to walk out of their classrooms into our program. Four days a week, our students receive a hot meal, individualized one-on-one tutoring, intentional community-building experiences, and take-home food kits to support their families Our tutoring is a coordinated effort with the student’s teacher and their intervention specialist, so each student has a customized tutor program designed just for them.

All of our tutors are volunteers and we have found that our students really enjoy having High School students join us for tutoring!

LIFE Food Pantry provides approximately 87% of the food provided through our programs. This collaboration reflects the strength of coordinated community support in Loveland.

We’d love to hear about how you think about risk taking?
I would describe myself as a calculated risk-taker! I’m not the type to jump off the side of a mountain or swim with sharks. However, I will be bold in my decision making when the collected data and timing are right.

Two years into our owning of Clutter 2 Care, we felt the nudge to open a physical thrift store. The only problem was that the nudge came three months into the COVID pandemic, when no one was even going out to stores and small businesses were closing left and right. However, the pieces just lined up perfectly and we decided to take the leap of faith.

Over the next six years, the store expanded to four times its original size and became the backbone of our outreach programs.

Similarly, when I joined NEST in the summer of 2025, the founding director had just retired and the organization had operated on the same model for nearly a decade. While it had served students well, it was becoming operationally unsustainable. After reviewing the mission and financial structure with the staff and board members, I made the bold decision to eliminate office overhead, transition from mobile classrooms into district buildings, and change up fundraising strategies.

Those changes came with growing pains and not every idea was immediately embraced or even liked. I believe risk should always be mission focused and how can we sustain that mission. Over time, those shifts began to support a sustainable growth structure proving our mission can remain steady into our next decade of operation.

For me, risk is about courage informed by experience. Even when something doesn’t work as planned, there is always something to learn. Every risk becomes either a win or a lesson to strengthen your next decision.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.nestclc.org
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NESTcommunitylearningcenter/