ABOUT STEPHANIE LAPRÉ

Hello!  I’m Stephanie.   

If we were actually together right now, we’d probably end up on the couch with coffee, a blanket, and the kind of conversation that starts in one place and ends somewhere completely unexpected.

That’s usually how my life works too.  I’ve spent twenty years in healthcare as a nurse and — yes, the boardrooms, the leadership roles, the policies, the initiatives — but the moments that shaped me weren’t the official ones.  They were the human ones.  The ones that happen when you’re trying to understand a lab result at 10 p.m., or sitting in your car after an appointment replaying everything you forgot to ask, or laughing with friends about who now needs reading glasses at restaurants because apparently we’re that age.

I’ve been the daughter trying to decode my dad’s latest test results.  I’ve been the woman refreshing the portal like it personally wronged me.  I’ve been the mom who definitely Googled things she shouldn’t have.  I’ve been the partner holding it together until I was alone enough to fall apart for a minute.  I’ve been the friend who gets the “is this normal?” texts.  And I’ve been the nurse leader who knows exactly how the system works and still sometimes spirals like the rest of us.

That combination, experience on the inside, emotions on the outside, is where I write from.

I’m not here to teach you how to fix anything.  I’m not here to promise 5 steps to make life easier.  I’m not here to pretend any of this is simple.  I’m here to talk about the real stuff.  The things we think but don’t always say.  The messy, funny, confusing, too-human moments that deserve more honesty than silence.  The moments we end up rehashing with girlfriends over wine or texting someone about at midnight.

My voice is a mix of warmth, intuition, humor, honesty, and that particular type of self-awareness you develop after years of being an emotional first responder for everyone around you.  Sometimes I’m reflective.  Sometimes I’m irreverent.  Sometimes I tell stories I probably shouldn’t but absolutely need to.  Mostly, I’m just trying to put words to the things so many of us carry.

If you’re here, I hope you feel seen.  I hope something I write makes you exhale, or laugh, or think, “Oh my God, same.”  I hope you feel less alone in whatever you’re moving through, whether it’s healthcare, womanhood, aging, grief, intuition, burnout, joy, or just the daily weirdness of being alive.

You can find my weekly writing at Lumani Unfiltered, it’s where all these stories live, unpolished and real, exactly the way we talk when we’re not trying to sound put together.

I’m really glad you’re here.

Inspired by the idea of shining a light into the complexities of healthcare, Lumani carries a sense of warmth, clarity, and guidance.  Though not a direct translation, its roots in my Filipino and Hawaiian heritage blend words like lumi, luna, and lani—all associated with light, sky, and perspective.