About Laura
Wife, Mother, Entrepreneur in Organic Food Industry, Austin Small Business Owner, 17-Year Semiconductor Engineering Professional, Advocate for Survivors of Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault, Allandale Resident, Organic Gardener, Avid Airstreamer, Anti-Fluoridation Activist, Ph.D. in Chemistry from U.T. Austin
In late 2007, Laura Pressley co-founded the Austin based company, Pure Rain Purified Rain Water, and has developed it to provide the most clean, pure, fluoride-free and chemical-free drinking water to health conscious and chemically sensitive consumers. Pure Rain is available in Whole Foods Market, Central Market, Peoples Pharmacy, Russell's Bakery and Bistro, Vulcan Video and other favorite Austin locations. One of Pure Rain's most important missions is to educate others about the impact that fluoride, chloramines, chloroform, and other chemicals found in tap water have on our health.
Prior to taking over Pure Rain, LLC, Laura's professional career spanned over 17 years in the Austin semiconductor industry at Motorola, AMD and Freescale as an engineer and manager focused on semiconductor device, contamination and yield engineering. She has managed teams in Austin, China and Malaysia and was the Gross Margin and Cost Reduction Manager for Freescale's $1B Networking Group and consistently exceeded their business goals. Throughout her career, Laura and her teams have delivered multimillion dollar savings, project after project. This is the level of cost savings, technical leadership, execution and teamwork that our Austin City Council desperately needs.
In addition to her technical contributions, Laura is passionate about having a personal impact and has been involved in a number of volunteer activities. Her community involvement has included serving on several Austin non-profit boards such as the Women's Advocacy Project, SafePlace the Travis County Battered Women's and Rape Survivors Shelter and has appeared on the CBS Early Show, Good Morning Austin, and has testified to the Austin City Council, Texas Senate and Texas House Legislative Committees for survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault. She has also volunteered as a public speaker on behalf of the Texas Council on Family Violence, the National Domestic Violence Hotline and the Houston Area Women's Center. Laura is a survivor of domestic violence and sexual assault and was presented the Woman of Wisdom Award by the Houston Area Women's Center in 2009. During the second half of 2011, she served as volunteer Development and Fundraising Chair for Discover Hope Fund, an Austin non-profit which creates opportunity for women in poverty through microcredit, entrepreneurship and training.
Laura is a former Steering Committee Member of Fluoride Free Austin where she helped to educate Austinites and our City Council on the negative health effects that fluoridation of our municipal water poses to all of us and to our environment. In addition, in 2011 she served as a Steering Committee member of Texans for Accountable Government (TAG), a non-partisan Political Action Committee, headquartered in Central Texas focusing on issues at the local, county, and state level. TAG is dedicated to safe guarding individual liberties, protecting personal privacy and property rights, election integrity, clean and safe water, and electing representatives that are accountable to their constituents.
Laura's educational background includes earning a Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from the University of Texas at Austin and she holds multiple U.S. patents, has co-authored numerous technical publications and presented at international semiconductor device and technical conferences. Laura is married and has a daughter who's a graduate from St. Edward's University and who holds a Master's Degree. Laura grew up in Mansfield, Texas, the daughter of a cattle auctioneer at the Forth Worth stockyards, rancher, and dairyman, who taught her the value of truth, hard work and her word. She has lived in Austin for over 23 years. She also enjoys collecting antiques, organic gardening, commercial and residential rainwater collection, and is an outspoken anti-GMO activist.
