Core Staff

Laurel (she/her) is a freshwater ecologist whose research includes how dams, wildfires, nutrient pollution, and changing flow regimes affect water quality and aquatic ecosystem function. Her work often involves analyzing long-term records and high-frequency sensor data. Laurel has worked for over a decade in the Klamath Basin, where she has collaborated with Tribal natural resource programs to document toxic blooms, evaluate nutrient pollution and riverine algal dynamics, and support coordinated science efforts before, during, and after large dam removal. Her work is motivated by a desire to support water quality management, ecosystem restoration, and freshwater conservation for human and non-human communities that rely on clean, functioning lakes and rivers. Laurel holds a Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolution from the University of Montana, an M.S. in Zoology from the University of Wyoming, and a B.S. from Southern Oregon University.

Laurel has worked as a field biologist, outdoor educator, and kayak guide, and has spent countless hours getting to know rivers of the western U.S. from her whitewater kayak. She enjoys teaching river ecology, mentoring, and supporting others in strengthening relationships with water through paddling. Laurel helped establish place-based river education programs on the Klamath River that support Indigenous youth as river stewards, led university field courses, and mentored graduate students and community volunteers in water quality science and algal identification. When not on the river or in her backyard garden, Laurel enjoys inefficiently ski touring on her splitboard, biking local trails, and frolicking in the alpine surrounding her home in Missoula, Montana.