Laura advances resilience and natural hazard preparedness through projects that unite local governments, critical infrastructure owners and operators, community members, and private sector partners. With an approach rooted in learning and collaborative problem-solving, Laura guides these diverse coalitions to align around shared values. Laura is a certified project manager and facilitator who continually hones her skills, and she prioritizes understanding a project’s specific challenges and opportunities so that she can develop realistic solutions and customize approaches to suit its needs.
Laura brings deep experience to emergency management planning, having led the development of the Portland, Oregon, -metropolitan area’s Regional Recovery Framework, in addition to updates to its emergency transportation and emergency fuel planning. Laura also delivered wildfire smoke mitigation workshops in partnership with the Environmental Protection Agency and supported regional responses to wildfires and other disasters. Laura’s resilience work started overseas, where she led recovery efforts after the Indian Ocean tsunami in Indonesia and supported climate-resilience efforts with rural communities in Nepal and Timor-Leste. Fluent in Spanish, Laura has also worked on projects across Latin America.
“I’m inspired to tackle resilience challenges, which are increasing in frequency and intensity due to climate change, because I care deeply about community-level impacts. I want to help stakeholders understand their risks, plan collaboratively, and take meaningful action.”
