Exploring Ideas for How to Juggle Work, School Work, and Family?
Expert Panelists Have Tips!

Panelists

LeRoy J. Watkins III, CEO and Co-Owner of Viking Sports
LeRoy J. Watkins III is the CEO and Co-Owner of Viking Sports, which is headquartered in Brookline, Massachusetts. At the helm of Viking Sports, Mr. Watkins has seen the company partner with numerous public municipalities offering recreational services as a community partner. Mr. Watkins has also pioneered Viking’s private sector expansion by partnering with the New England Revolution and offering sports programing to homeschool families, daycare centers, and other education centers. Prior to purchasing Viking Sports, LeRoy was the CEO and Founder of a successful Boston area health and fitness startup. Mr. Watkins’ business success has been noticed by both national and local media outlets including Bloomberg BusinessWeek, Boston Business Journal, and New England’s Chronicle.
Mr. Watkins also personally trains and develops Viking’s staff of over 80 full and part time employees. Mr. Watkins trains staff in areas of coaching and program management as well as in administrative duties and business development.

Lisa Wasserman Sivan, Co-Founder of The Village Works
Lisa Wasserman Sivan is co-founder of The Village Works, a neighborhood coworking space that offers four stories of shared space for working, meetings, and events in the heart of Brookline Village. She is a Brookline-based architectural designer with 20 years of design-build experience, specializing in the design of homes and work environments, including home offices. As a designer, she created The Village Works and its predecessor, WorkShop in the Coolidge Corner Arcade, launched in 2015. 
 
Jen Martin, History Teacher, BHS
Jen Martin has been a teacher for 19 years, 16 years of which have been as a history teacher at Brookline High School.  Jen has her PhD in Educational Leadership from Lesley University and is also a parent of two children at the Pierce School in Brookline.  Her son is a 7th grader and her daughter is a 4th grader.  

Phillip Laidlaw, Psy.D., Licensed Psychologist 
As a clinical psychologist over the past 21 years, Dr. Phillip Laidlaw has had the honor and privilege to work with children, adolescents, adults, couples and families from different cultural backgrounds. He has experience working with clients and families who have had challenges with difficult life events to people struggling with major mental illness.
 
He is currently the Director of The Couple's and Family therapy program as well as the Diversity initiative at The Brookline Center for Community Mental Health. His dedication to culturally responsive care has led to a number of opportunities to work and teach clinicians, families, and individuals in various communities about the importance of inclusion and access. 

He has been involved in community-based programs that encourage young people of color to embrace their cultural identity, strive for success and give back to their community. 
 
Dr. Laidlaw’ also has a private practice in Framingham.  In all his work, he believes that the goal of therapy is to explore the reasons clients and families enter treatment.  He utilizes the knowledge for these meetings to formulate different approaches that engage clients strengths to develop skills to best address clients’ specific needs.  He understands that issues that bring people to therapy are sensitive in nature and works with clients and families through difficult circumstances with care and compassion.