Member since November 2025
Lori McDowell is a catalyst for purpose-driven success, known for transforming moments of transition into extraordinary possibilities. A former chemical engineer who once optimized catalysts in billion-dollar industries, she now applies that same precision and innovation to human potential—helping leaders design lives and businesses fueled by purpose, aligned action, and soul-success. As the CEO of Reimagine U Strategies and the creator of Your Extraordinary Life, Lori guides high-achieving entrepreneurs, executives, and visionaries through powerful frameworks that elevate clarity, expand possibilities, and accelerate impact.
Featured on Bloomberg, Fox Business, TedX and global stages, Lori is a sought-after speaker who blends science, strategy, and storytelling into experiences that ignite reinvention. Her signature approach—Purpose to Pinnacle™—shows audiences how purpose becomes the catalyst that transforms ideas into meaningful impact, income, and influence. Whether speaking at conferences, organizational events, or transformational retreats, Lori equips audiences to rise with intention, lead with confidence, and step into the extraordinary life they’re called to create.
Lori is deeply passionate about helping people create extraordinary lives while having a whole lot of fun along the way. She believes transformation happens most powerfully when joy, adventure, and curiosity are part of the experience—when people laugh, explore new perspectives, and feel fully alive. Blending soulful depth with playful energy, she invites audiences to see what is possible when purpose meets possibility and action. Her ultimate goal is to spark extraordinary lives that create ripples of positive change, proving that living with joy, courage, and intention has the power to change the world.
At a recent retreat in Fiji, called Wroldchangers Retreat—an experience I helped plan—each of us was invited to give a ten-minute Worldchanger Speech, a meaningful cornerstone of the retreat. My message was simple and close to my heart: the world changes through ordinary people taking small, intentional actions that can create extraordinary change. We all know the iconic names—Martin Luther King Jr., Mother Teresa, Gandhi—yet so much real change happens quietly, through everyday moments, like someone paying for the car behind them at a Chick-fil-A drive-through and setting off a ripple that lasts for hours. As grounded as the message felt, I was still searching for the right ending.
The day before we flew to Fiji, while our group was together in Los Angeles, our retreat host shared the familiar starfish story—the little boy on the beach, reminded that even one small act matters. Then, days later in Fiji, walking alone along the beach, I looked down and saw a tiny starfish, no bigger than an inch, resting in the sand. At first I thought it was gone, then I realized it was still alive. I picked it up and gently tossed it back into the ocean. In that moment, everything came together. I didn’t just have an ending for my Worldchanger Speech—I had lived it. I made a difference for that one starfish. And it became the clearest reminder of what I believe to be true: one ordinary person, taking one small, intentional act, truly can create a ripple that changes the world.
My origin story unfolds across three moments, stretched over thirty years, each shaping how I understand purpose, possibility, and why extraordinary lives matter. The first came during my senior year of high school, when my little sister, Stacie, was in a serious accident. Her life was changed forever, and in many ways, I lost the sister I once knew. That experience taught me early that tomorrow is never guaranteed, and it created a deep belief in taking action and doing what we love while we can.
About nine months later, as a freshman in college, I experienced what I recognized immediately as divine intervention. My car spun 360 degrees on the New Jersey Turnpike, and I walked away unharmed. I knew I had been spared for a reason, and from that moment on, I began actively searching for my purpose. For the next thirty years, I looked for it everywhere—through achievement, responsibility, and success—yet something always felt missing, even as my career continued to grow.
Thirty years later, I was working as a chemical engineer in a role I thought I loved. I was successful and respected, the highest-ranking technical woman in the company, managing our largest customers. Leadership changed, alignment shifted, and on a routine work trip—after driving four hours for a two-day meeting—I arrived at the hotel to find my room had been canceled. Shortly after, I was fired and told I would be paid through the end of the day. I felt angry, terrified, and untethered. Then halfway home, a simple thought arrived: I don’t have to go to work tomorrow. In that instant, the fear lifted and joy replaced it. That was the moment everything finally clicked. I realized the purpose I had been searching for all those years was about choosing a life of meaning and joy, placing my happiness in my own hands, and helping others create extraordinary lives that ripple outward and change the world.
At a recent retreat in Fiji, called Wroldchangers Retreat—an experience I helped plan—each of us was invited to give a ten-minute Worldchanger Speech, a meaningful cornerstone of the retreat. My message was simple and close to my heart: the world changes through ordinary people taking small, intentional actions that can create extraordinary change. We all know the iconic names—Martin Luther King Jr., Mother Teresa, Gandhi—yet so much real change happens quietly, through everyday moments, like someone paying for the car behind them at a Chick-fil-A drive-through and setting off a ripple that lasts for hours. As grounded as the message felt, I was still searching for the right ending.
The day before we flew to Fiji, while our group was together in Los Angeles, our retreat host shared the familiar starfish story—the little boy on the beach, reminded that even one small act matters. Then, days later in Fiji, walking alone along the beach, I looked down and saw a tiny starfish, no bigger than an inch, resting in the sand. At first I thought it was gone, then I realized it was still alive. I picked it up and gently tossed it back into the ocean. In that moment, everything came together. I didn’t just have an ending for my Worldchanger Speech—I had lived it. I made a difference for that one starfish. And it became the clearest reminder of what I believe to be true: one ordinary person, taking one small, intentional act, truly can create a ripple that changes the world.
My origin story unfolds across three moments, stretched over thirty years, each shaping how I understand purpose, possibility, and why extraordinary lives matter. The first came during my senior year of high school, when my little sister, Stacie, was in a serious accident. Her life was changed forever, and in many ways, I lost the sister I once knew. That experience taught me early that tomorrow is never guaranteed, and it created a deep belief in taking action and doing what we love while we can.
About nine months later, as a freshman in college, I experienced what I recognized immediately as divine intervention. My car spun 360 degrees on the New Jersey Turnpike, and I walked away unharmed. I knew I had been spared for a reason, and from that moment on, I began actively searching for my purpose. For the next thirty years, I looked for it everywhere—through achievement, responsibility, and success—yet something always felt missing, even as my career continued to grow.
Thirty years later, I was working as a chemical engineer in a role I thought I loved. I was successful and respected, the highest-ranking technical woman in the company, managing our largest customers. Leadership changed, alignment shifted, and on a routine work trip—after driving four hours for a two-day meeting—I arrived at the hotel to find my room had been canceled. Shortly after, I was fired and told I would be paid through the end of the day. I felt angry, terrified, and untethered. Then halfway home, a simple thought arrived: I don’t have to go to work tomorrow. In that instant, the fear lifted and joy replaced it. That was the moment everything finally clicked. I realized the purpose I had been searching for all those years was about choosing a life of meaning and joy, placing my happiness in my own hands, and helping others create extraordinary lives that ripple outward and change the world.