Lauralyn Lovell McCarthy Sandoval
Lauralyn Lovell McCarthy Sandoval was born in Los Angeles, California. She is one of seven children. Lauralyn graduated from Louisville High School in Woodland Hills, California in 1987. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Nevada, Reno in 1992. She attended UNR on a tennis scholarship and graduated on the President’s Honor Roll. She was named one of UNR’s Top Ten Senior Women, and received the Journalism School’s Senior Advertising Professionalism Award and the Pi Beta Phi Sorority National Change Leadership Award.
Lauralyn has spent a twenty-five-year career as an executive, innovator and entrepreneur in the gaming industry. She has worked at IGT and Scientific Games and is currently the Vice President of New Markets at Aristocrat Technologies. She built a successful gaming route business from scratch in New Mexico. One of her proudest professional achievements was co-founding Zwier, a company creating products supporting women’s well-being and confidence.
Lauralyn’s experience in gaming, technology and business development have led her to serve as a consultant to public companies and entrepreneurs. She is an advisor to Gaming Analytics, a company that created a search driven, cognitive computing platform to help casino operators make timely and effective business decisions. Her op-ed for Global Gaming Business was entitled “It’s Not About Women: It’s About Business Results.”
Sandoval is a board member of Global Gaming Women and co-chairs the Great Women of Gaming Awards. She is a frequent public speaker about opportunities for women in the workforce. In 2013, Sandoval received the Great Women of Gaming Proven Leader Award and the University of Nevada, Reno’s Alumni Professional Achievement Award. She also received the Global Gaming Women Patty Becker “Pay it Forward” Award in 2018.
As Nevada’s First Lady, Lauralyn created “Level Up,” an educational program bringing awareness, connections and learning to men and women to help women “Level Up” in community-based operations, for-profit business, education, law enforcement, and civil service. In her role as First Lady, she travelled on trade missions, attended the National Governors Association and Western Governors Association meetings with her husband, former Governor Brian Sandoval, making national global connections and representing the great state of Nevada.
As the sibling of a brother and sister with severe developmental disabilities, Lauralyn is passionate and determined to improve the quality of life for the disabled community. Currently, Sandoval sits on Opportunity Village’s Foundation Board and the Governor’s Council on Developmental Disabilities where she champions the disabled community. Sandoval advocates on a number of issues involving persons with disabilities and is a published author regarding women’s issues. She is a mentor at Core Academy in Las Vegas, a program designed to help at-risk youth reach their academic and life potential. She is a co-founder of Cancer Research Racquet, which supports the American Cancer Society and a former trustee of Desert Research Institute. Sandoval has also previously served on the Las Vegas Board of Entrepreneurs Organization.
In Spring 2018, Sandoval was the commencement speaker at the University of Nevada, Reno Journalism and Liberal Arts graduation ceremony. Her themes, keeping “the human in humanity” and “anything is possible” were presented to over ten thousand people at the UNR Quad. She also spoke about the importance of education as our society moves into the fourth industrial revolution.
Lauralyn believes that “because anything is possible, everything is possible.” She enjoys reading, hiking, tennis, cheering for the Vegas Golden Knights and the Las Vegas Raiders and spending time with her family, friends and dogs, Charley and JOY!