Hi, my name is Laura and I work to protect the phenomenal diversity of life on earth.
I'm an environmental scientist, activist, facilitator, and artist. I have a Masters in Wildlife Conservation, and a PhD in global agriculture and biodiversity conservation (from Humboldt University, Berlin).
Here's some stuff I've been lucky enough to be involved in:
I led the team that discovered a new chimpanzee behaviour in the Republic of Guinea. We still haven't figured out what the chimps were up to.
During this time, I lived alongside farmers who were struggling to grow food under worsening droughts and floods. I founded a campaign to support these farmers across sub-Saharan Africa in planting trees on their land, recovering the soil, creating food forests, and increasing food security.
To date, we have planted over 330,000 trees and restored countless patches of land back to health (400trees.org).
I worked with Prof. Tara Martin for a 2 year post-doc at UBC, Canada (she's great at applied conservation). We brought together over 60 stakeholders in Vancouver, Canada to develop a cost-effective conservation action plan for over 100 species at risk in the region. Since completing this research, the region has gained 5 million dollars in funding to implement the conservation actions that we recommended.
I went to Oxford to research how corruption and the livestock industry is pushing the Amazon rainforest towards chaos and drought. While the EU-Mercosur trade deal was being urgently negotiated, I gained the support of 600 scientists in the EU and 300 Indigenous groups in Brazil to call for human rights and environmental protection to be the cornerstone of EU trade (Kehoe et al., Science, 2019). I met with the European Trade Commissioner to attempt to convey the destruction of lives and forests - all committed in the name of EU demand. Thankfully, the EU-Mercosur trade deal was not passed and Bolsonaro is no longer the president of Brazil. I continue to collaborate with the over 30 MEPs who supported our call to push for stronger environmental and human rights at the EU level (EUBrazilTrade.org).
I was part of an award winning exhibition in Oxfords Natural History Museum, (Meat the Future exhibition - winner of the Museums + Heritage Advisor Award for Partnership of the Year, 2022).
I led the team that created a Green Santa’s grotto on Grafton street in 2019. With the help of one of Ireland’s most prominent youth climate activists, Saoi O’Connor, letters from children explaining what they wanted for the planet for Christmas were delivered to leaders meeting at the 2019 COP conference.
My work has been covered in hundreds of media interviews including an interview in Nature's Weirdest Events on the BBC, a Sky News interview (live on Christmas Day), and numerous features in the Irish Times, the BBC, the Guardian and many other international media outlets.
I was featured in the Irish Examiner’s list of ‘100 Women of 2021’ under the category of leadership.
Right now, I'm most excited about a new workshop I have developed to transform our idea of what it means to be human. It's called 'Becoming Life'. I bring participants through a guided trip of the evolution of life on earth, together we celebrate the millions of ancestors that it took for us to be alive right now today, we the allow ourselves to reimagine our role on this dear planet at this critical time.
Summary
2024
Freelance Writer, Facilitator, & Public Speaker, Dublin, Ireland
2023
Biodiversity Officer, Wicklow, Ireland
2018 - 2022
Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Oxford and The Nature Conservancy, UK
2019
Founded EUBrazilTrade.org
2016 - 2018
Postdoctoral Researcher, Baum Lab, University of Victoria & Martin Conservation Decisions Lab, University of British Columbia, Canada
2015
Founded 400trees.org
2012 - 2016
Doctoral Researcher, Conservation Biogeography Lab, Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany
2015
Guest Researcher, Wilcove Lab, Princeton University
2011 - 2012
Research and Conservation Fellow, Kino Bay Center, Sonora, Mexico
2010 - 2011
Site Manager, Wild Chimpanzee Foundation & Max Planck Institute, Republic of Guinea
2010
Researcher, Wildcliff Nature Reserve, Western Cape, South Africa
2010
Intern, Wildlife Translocation Services, Kimberley, South Africa
2009 - 2010
Cataloger, National Museum of Scotland
2009 - 2010
Masters in Wildlife Biology and Conservation, Edinburgh Napier University, Scotland
Freelance Writer, Facilitator, & Public Speaker, Dublin, Ireland
2023
Biodiversity Officer, Wicklow, Ireland
2018 - 2022
Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Oxford and The Nature Conservancy, UK
2019
Founded EUBrazilTrade.org
2016 - 2018
Postdoctoral Researcher, Baum Lab, University of Victoria & Martin Conservation Decisions Lab, University of British Columbia, Canada
2015
Founded 400trees.org
2012 - 2016
Doctoral Researcher, Conservation Biogeography Lab, Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany
2015
Guest Researcher, Wilcove Lab, Princeton University
2011 - 2012
Research and Conservation Fellow, Kino Bay Center, Sonora, Mexico
2010 - 2011
Site Manager, Wild Chimpanzee Foundation & Max Planck Institute, Republic of Guinea
2010
Researcher, Wildcliff Nature Reserve, Western Cape, South Africa
2010
Intern, Wildlife Translocation Services, Kimberley, South Africa
2009 - 2010
Cataloger, National Museum of Scotland
2009 - 2010
Masters in Wildlife Biology and Conservation, Edinburgh Napier University, Scotland
