About Us

Laura Marie Rivera, Mindy Ursino, and Carolyn Burroughs make up the #MomsOf4 Intuitionship Team. 

 Melinda (Mindy) Ursino is a doctoral candidate at Seattle University in the College of Education. She also works full-time managing a training strategy team at an aviation company. Mindy has a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics from the University of Washington and a Masters in Teaching from Seattle University.  Before her current job, she taught math and science in Guatemala, Missouri, and Washington for all ages, including South Seattle College. Her career has spanned various roles in the field of education and training, yet what she is most proud of in her life is her four children. It was through the experience of Motherhood that she honed her leadership skills in humility, adaptability, and collaboration. Being a Mother has shaped her leadership style and she is curious whether other Mothers experienced similar development. Mindy is a fourth generation Seattleite, and enjoys visiting her children in Utah, Oklahoma, Ireland, and Washington State University.   

Laura Marie Rivera is a Mother, an artist, an educator, a writer, and a doctoral candidate at Seattle University. She grew up in Sacramento as one of five children and moved to Los Angeles to earn her B.A. from UCLA. Then moved to New York City to follow her dream of performing on Broadway. When she and her husband relocated to Bentonville, Arkansas, she taught in public schools and museums while commuting back to NY to earn her M.S. Ed. From Bank Street College of Education. In their present home in Seattle, WA, Laura Marie has continued her work in arts and education advocacy and even ran for office, all while maintaining the role of primary caregiver for her four children, ages 9-19. As the daughter of a formidable Mother, she is looking forward to promoting the accomplishments of other Mother Leaders from across the country. 

 Carolyn Burroughs, is a doctoral candidate at Seattle University in the College of Education, Educational & Organizational Learning and Leadership program. She has an M.Ed. in Early Childhood Education (grades 0-5) from University of Georgia and a B.A. in English from The Ohio State University. She and her husband of over thirty-five years are the proud parents of four sons and grandparents of four grandsons, and a granddaughter. As a student of leadership theory and practice, Burroughs’ research interests include acknowledging and supporting the generative leadership of Mothers and the assets they bring to organizations; ways in which cultural leadership development of educators on short-term experiences abroad impact their practice in multi-cultural classrooms; (re)membering global leadership development of BIPOC women faculty at Jesuit institutions; and designing distinctly Jesuit short-term student experiences abroad. Burroughs is an Ohio native and currently resides in the Seattle metro area. 

Carolyn, Mindy, and Laura Marie are classmates in the Educational and Organizational Learning and Leadership program at Seattle University. When they were randomly assigned to a group for a class project, they realized that all three of them are Mothers of 4! And as a group, they started to look at the coursework and the world through the lens of a Mother Leader. As educators, we are aware that are Mothers are our first teachers. But it is rarely acknowledged that Mothers are also our first leaders. And unlike the leaders of the business world, if we do our jobs well, it's almost like we were never there at all. 

The Moms Of 4 recognize that Mothers are amazing Leaders!