Laura Feinstein

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Dr. Laura Feinstein is the Director of the Resilient Landscapes Program at SFEI. As Program Director, she ensures that the program succeeds in transforming cities and landscapes into socially and ecologically resilient systems.

Laura brings an interdisciplinary background in the natural and social sciences to the role. Most recently, she was the Sustainability and Resilience Policy Director at SPUR, a public policy think-tank dedicated to making the Bay Area sustainable, prosperous, and equitable. Her work included in-depth research on curbing carbon emissions and reducing the water footprint of Bay Area cities, with an emphasis on equitable program implementation. She worked with elected officials and agency staff to incorporate the group’s research results into legislative and regulatory change. 

Previously, Laura worked as a Senior Researcher at Pacific Institute, a global water think-tank, and California Council on Science and Technology, an organization that supports science-informed policy. She also served as a Science and Technology Fellow with the California Senate Committee on Environmental Quality. 

Laura holds a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology from UC Berkeley and a Ph.D. in Ecology from UC Davis.