Trained as a soil scientist, her innovative leadership in soil health and sustainable agriculture systems research at the Beltsville Agriculture Research Center in Maryland was nationally recognized with a USDA Secretary’s Honor Award in 2002. 

Laura has broad federal policy expertise gained through work as a U.S. Senate staffer, a USDA-ARS researcher, and a lobbyist advocating for sustainable agriculture in the U.S. Congress. She has owned and managed organic vegetable operations marketed through community supported agriculture and farmers’ markets in Tidewater Virginia and in western North Carolina.  She has a long history of leading effective collaborations in community-based research, education and advocacy for sustainable food and farming and the application of social-ecological resilience theory to climate risk management and resilience planning in service to a just transformation of U.S. food and farming. 

Laura is the owner and principal consultant at Cultivating Resilience, LLC, a private firm that works with organizations of all kinds to integrate climate risk management and resilience thinking into operations and strategic planning.  She has led federal, state and local climate resilience research and planning projects exploring agricultural climate solutions, conducted resilience assessments and developed carbon management plans for small- and mid-sized businesses, and designed and delivered climate risk management workshops tailored to diverse audiences throughout North America. Laura has served as an advisor to the National Cooperative Extension’s Climate Science Learning Network, the Vermont Food Network, the USDA Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program, and the North American Climate Smart Agriculture Alliance. 

In 2021, Laura joined the Glynwood Center for Regional Food and Farming as the Director of Agriculture.  She works with the entire Glynwood team to ensure that Glynwood’s farmer training and regional food programs promote best practices in climate-smart agriculture and leads Glynwood collaborations with regional, national and international organizations to develop climate solutions in regional food and farming that enhance community resilience.  

Laura’s scientific and popular articles about climate change, resilience and the future of food have been included in regional, national, and international publications. The second edition of her award-winning book, Resilient Agriculture: Cultivating Food Systems for a Changing Climate (New Society Publishers, 2022), examines climate change, resilience and the future of food through the adaptation stories of more than 40 leading sustainable, organic, regenerative and climate-smart farmers and ranchers growing food throughout the U.S. 

When Resilient Agriculture was published in 2015, it was the first, and is still the only book to apply social-ecological resilience theory to climate risk management in U.S. food and farming systems.  Resilient Agriculture was included in Food Tank’s 15 Favorite Food Books of 2015 and was nominated for the Southern Writers Award in 2015 and for the Renewable Natural Resources Foundation’s Excellence in Journalism Award in 2016.  Resilient Agriculture was one of just twelve books selected for Yale Climate Connections’ “Climate Changing the Menu” bookshelf in 2016.

Prior to founding Cultivating Resilience, LLC, Laura led the Sustainable Agriculture Program at Warren Wilson College in Asheville, NC, where she also served as the Director of Sustainability Education, conducted research in sustainability assessment and holistic management, facilitated student-led energy descent action planning, provided technical assistance to campus farm and food service managers, mentored capstone student research, and led the development of an innovative sustainable dining policy for the college. 

In her free time, Laura enjoys working on her 2 acre biointensive mini-farm tucked away in a lovely south-facing cove in the Swannanoa Valley near Asheville, NC.  She delights in singing classic swing, is an accomplished traditional dance fiddler, and regularly performs at dances and private events in the Asheville region and beyond.