Laura Ward is the Conservation Science Director at Pepperwood Preserve, a 3,200-acre living laboratory in Sonoma County that both hosts a Sentinel Site and partners with Sentinel Sites for Nature (SSN) to test and validate emerging protocols and technologies. She also serves on SSN’s coordinating committee, helping to advance collaborative approaches to monitoring climate and biodiversity change. As a crossdisciplinary researcher and facilitator with expertise in ecological conservation and social science, Laura leads Pepperwood’s science initiatives and organization-wide fundraising efforts. She excels at bridging science and non-science teams, guiding collaboration from project design through publication. Prior to Pepperwood, she held leadership roles in climate and AgTech startups, advancing grant fundraising strategies and sustainable pollination systems. Laura holds a PhD in Environmental Science, Policy, and Management from UC Berkeley and a BA in Liberal Arts from Saint Mary’s College. She spends her downtime reading novels, doing puzzles, bothering native bees, and trying to prevent her kiddo, dog, and two cats from chasing the chickens around her yard in Sonoma County.