Influential Women spotlights Dr. Lakysha Laing’s leadership in customer experience

Influential Women is featuring Dr. Lakysha Laing, a Chesapeake-based contact center executive with more than 30 years in telecommunications and customer experience. The profile highlights her push for human-centered leadership, operational excellence and stronger representation for women in male-dominated workplaces.

Why it matters: - Dr. Lakysha Laing’s career shows how customer experience work is changing from pure operations to leadership that blends data, coaching and employee engagement. - Her profile also underscores the growing push for women to claim space in leadership roles in male-dominated industries. - Laing’s story connects professional achievement with resilience, foster care advocacy and health awareness, which may resonate with audiences looking for leadership examples beyond title and tenure.

What happened: - Influential Women featured Dr. Lakysha Laing in a profile published Aug. 21, 2026. - Laing is a Chesapeake, Virginia-based contact center strategist and human-centered leader. - Laing has more than 30 years of experience in telecommunications, customer experience and operational leadership. - Her career has included leadership roles at Cox Communications, Verizon, Cablevision, now Altice, and Kaplan Test Prep. - Laing currently leads contact center operations focused on customer satisfaction, employee experience and operational performance.

The details: - Laing has built her reputation on coaching, engagement, accountability and process improvement. - Her leadership approach centers on the idea that operations depend on both technology and the people behind the numbers. - She has led enterprise initiatives that required adaptability, cross-functional collaboration and sustained service excellence during a period of major disruption. - Laing has developed coaching and performance systems tied to improvements in Net Promoter Scores, first-call resolution and employee engagement. - Her work has brought together IT, marketing, field operations and sales to create more cohesive customer experiences. - Laing earned associate and bachelor’s degrees in Information Systems, followed by an MBA in Business Administration. - She completed a doctorate in Business Administration at the University of Phoenix. - Outside her corporate work, Laing is a published author and an advocate for foster youth and health awareness. - Laing is a foster care alumna and a breast cancer survivor. - Laing says resilience has been central to her path and that success means being fully present and transparent about her goals. - About two to three years ago, Laing realized she had been seeking too much external validation and adjusting herself to other people’s expectations. - A mentor helped her see that she did not need outside validation to define her leadership style. - Laing now describes her approach as firm but fair, with an emphasis on honesty and alignment. - Laing says her next development challenge is breaking through the “tactical ceiling” and proving broader strategic leadership. - She is pursuing work that includes budget ownership, high-cost initiatives and long-term strategic planning. - Laing also makes daily reflection part of her routine to support work-life balance and ongoing growth. - Her advice to young women in male-dominated industries is to use their voices confidently, support their views with data and speak up when others try to define their expertise for them. - Laing’s team principles are to know people, understand the business and be honest when commitments cannot be met. - She says transparency matters because leaders and employees depend on accurate information to make decisions and build trust. - More information is available through Dr. Laing’s Influential Women profile.

Between the lines: - The profile frames Laing as someone moving from operational excellence toward broader executive influence. - Her emphasis on authenticity suggests a leadership style built on credibility rather than image management. - The repeated focus on women speaking up reflects a broader workplace challenge: expertise can be overlooked when leadership rooms remain underrepresented. - The combination of professional credentials and personal adversity positions Laing as both a business leader and an advocacy voice.

What’s next: - Laing is aiming for roles with greater strategic scope, including financial responsibility and long-term organizational impact. - Her profile suggests continued leadership in customer experience, team development and advocacy for women and foster youth. - Influential Women will likely continue using profiles like Laing’s to spotlight women leaders and expand its storytelling platform.