About Mike Lawrence
The man you'd put in front of your congregation
Mike Lawrence, a native of New York City, has a background in technology, business, and entertainment. He is a graduate of the United States Air Force Academy with a degree in Astronautical Engineering.
He began in magical entertainment as a hobby while at the Air Force Academy. In 2001 he met Andre Kole and discovered how effective this style of ministry is in sharing the Gospel — and, with Andre's assistance, established a similar outreach ministry.
Twenty-five years of Gospel illusion ministry; the Andre Kole method, established in 2001 with Andre's help; featured on national television; U.S. Air Force Academy graduate.
A moment in time
Featured by Amazon Web Services
For a season, Amazon Web Services pointed its camera at a community-college classroom in Queens — and at the professor who had turned it into a launchpad for the cloud workforce. This preserves that chapter: the work, the numbers, and the words AWS used to tell it.
Amazon Web Services · "AWS Academy Helps QCC Train the Next Generation of Diverse Builders" · watch on YouTube
The AWS chapter · Queensborough Community College
Training the next generation of builders
After discovering AWS Academy in 2018, Mike built one of the most productive cloud-education programs in the City University of New York — and brought five fellow instructors along with him, all AWS-certified.
"The AWS Academy material provides the what, while I talk about why that what is important."
"Folks at AWS are doing something incredible and wonderful — teaching students vital skills to get them better employment prospects instead of being stuck in dead-end jobs."
— from the AWS case study, "Training the Next Generation of Builders at Queensborough Community College."
The other pillar · advanced manufacturing
Where the cloud meets the workbench
Mike was the principal designer of Queensborough's Advanced Manufacturing Lab, architecting its additive-manufacturing heart — production-grade 3D printing in everything from PLA and nylon to polycarbonate, ULTEM and PolyJet photopolymers — together with its metrology and 3D-scanning / reverse-engineering and laser-processing capabilities. (The lab also houses a full subtractive machining floor.)
CUNY Queensborough · "3D Printing Lab Transforms Lives" · watch on YouTube
CUNY Queensborough · "Humans of Queensborough": Mateo Saenz — whose NSF-funded drone was built in this lab · watch on YouTube
"What we have is a million-dollar lab that is unique and unlike almost any other lab in the world today at a college."
The impact is literal. The lab has 3D-printed patient-specific anatomical models for Memorial Sloan Kettering, St. Jude's, Children's Hospital in Omaha, and St. Mary's Hospital in Connecticut — and research models for the University of Texas at El Paso. During the COVID-19 pandemic the lab produced life-saving medical equipment, and students have built NSF-funded work here, like Mateo Saenz's emergency-response drone — featured above.
The arc
From launching satellites to launching careers
- United States Air Force Academy — B.S., Astronautical Engineering The foundation: rocket science.
- Captain, United States Air Force — Space Intelligence Systems Launch Operations National Reconnaissance Office · Space Launch Complex 4.
- Wall Street & the Fortune 500 — ~30 years in technology management Merrill Lynch · GE Capital · Deutsche Bank · JP Morgan Chase.
- Professor, Queensborough Community College (CUNY) — Engineering Technology, since 2014 Teaching the cloud to one of the most diverse student bodies in America.
- AWS Academy Accredited Educator — cloud, serverless, AI/ML & data Excellence brought full circle — and now, to the Gospel.
Credentials
The toolkit
- AWS Academy Accredited Educator
- AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
- AWS Certified Solutions Architect — Associate
- AWS Certified Developer — Associate
- AWS Certified SysOps Administrator — Associate
- CompTIA Security+
- Six Sigma Black Belt (GE Capital)
- FINRA Series 7 & 63
Research & recognition
Beyond the classroom
Education: B.S., Astronautical Engineering — U.S. Air Force Academy · A.S., Internet & Information Technology — Queensborough Community College.
Research interests: Machine Learning & Artificial Intelligence · Advanced Manufacturing & Fabrication · 3D Printing.
Grants & honors: Outstanding Continuing Education Instructor (2021) — Continuing Education Association of New York (CEANY) · NSF I-Corps Principal Investigator (Autonomous Unmanned Vehicle Ecosystem Technology) · WiTNY — Women in Technology grant · CUNY PSC awards · CUNY Research Scholar Program mentor · QCC C.A.R.E.S. Award (2025).
Faculty profile: Engineering Technology Department, Queensborough Community College (CUNY) — faculty since 2014.
Institutional validation
Named the flagship of CUNY's AWS partnership
A 2023 Business–Higher Education Forum case study, How CUNY Partnered with Amazon to Increase Economic Mobility, singled out Queensborough — the program Mike leads — as "the most prominent partnership" in CUNY's work with AWS, with more than 7,000 New Yorkers enrolling in QCC's cloud and IT credential courses since 2022.
These are gifts, and I hold them as stewardship — not as my foundation. The same standard of excellence I learned launching satellites and teaching the cloud, I now bring to a greater commission: the Gospel, and the harvest God is orchestrating.
"But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ." — Philippians 3:7
The ask today is small
Pencil a date, and give me ten minutes with your congregation. If after that it doesn't fit, we part as friends.
Mike Lawrence · “… to seek and to save that which is lost.” — Luke 19:10