Born in the mid 80’s to a firefighter and a PG&E employee, Laura spent the first decade or so of her life doing what kids do best – exploring, learning, growing, and forging social connections.
At the age of 18, Laura left her hometown to attend college at the University of California at Santa Cruz. Laura pursued a Bachelor’s Degree in Environmental Studies, and in 2007 Laura graduated from UCSC’s Environmental Studies program with Highest Honors in the Major.
Laura put the knowledge she gained from classes such as Restoration Ecology, Ethnobotany (with Steve Gliessman), Natural History of Birds (with Breck Tyler), Environmental Action Through Writing (with Sarah Rabkin), and Environmental Education (with Pete Holloran), as well as internships with the UCSC Museum of Natural History (under Tonya Haff) and an interpretive docent role at Natural Bridges State Beach (under Martha Nitzberg) to good use as an Americorps member performing community outreach and creek restoration as the City of Gresham, Oregon’s, Heiney Creek Specialist (under Laura Guderyahn).
After her 11 month term with Americorps ended, Laura returned to the lush redwood ecosystem of northern California to work at Westminster Woods (under David Berman and Rebecca Detrich), where she spent about 6 years performing in various roles, but primarily acting as a Teacher Naturalist and Challenge Course Facilitator, tailoring curriculum developed by Ken Beals, Lynn Barakos, and the BEETLE’s Core Team to meet the needs of students K-12th grades as appropriate, keeping her groups safe on the ground and on the ropes, and helping students and chaperones forge connections with themselves, each other, and the environment through fostering communication skills and giving structures opportunity for observation and exploration in a variety of California’s diverse ecosystems.
In Fall 2015, while working part time at “the Woods” and taking classes at Santa Rosa Junior College, Laura received a diagnosis of a vestibular schwannoma, aka acoustic neuroma, which led to a lot of testing, MRIs, and no small amount of anxiety. At this time, Laura stopped working at the Woods and chose to focus on her classes and her health.
In January 2016 Laura had a surgery to “de-bulk” this approximately golf-ball sized tumor, which was compressing her hearing and balance nerve, causing partial facial numbness, and partial hearing loss. The surgery has left her permanently deaf on her left side, and she has yet to regain her ability to cry out of her left eye or full facial symmetry.
In April 2016 Laura got to experience the joy of having her head encased in a stereotactic cage so that she could have gamma knife surgery to direct radiation precisely at the remaining tumor cells in her skull.
After these travails, Laura continued to push forward, taking online classes in beginning Photoshop and InDesign in the summer of 2016.
Since then Laura has held a variety of traditional and non-traditional employment positions in retail and childcare, and has worked as an Independent Driver with Lyft. She has also performed a variety of tasks for people within her community, such as dog walking, housekeeping, and yard tidying.
Laura currently lives in Solano County in California, and her work is focused there in public service roles.
Laura values diversity, equity, and inclusion, and is willing to work at reduced or no cost for marginalized people on a case by case basis.
~ Thank You ~
Laura Barrow 