Laurel Williams

PROFILE

Laurel Williams focuses on federal agency policy and place-based efforts involving our public landscapes for Pew’s U.S. conservation project. She works in collaboration with policymakers, Tribal Nations, and stakeholders, leveraging science and research to achieve outcomes that safeguard lands and waters, wildlife, and communities. Williams is based in Portland, Oregon.

Before joining Pew, Williams worked for the California Wilderness Coalition, first as a field organizer and later as the Southern California deputy conservation director, where she helped to secure wilderness and wild river protections in the California desert region and engaged in land use planning and renewable energy siting. Williams also served as a fellow for the U.S. House Natural Resources Committee in Washington, D.C. And before that, she worked as a community organizer for the Public Interest Research Group in Washington state, where she helped pass a ballot initiative for a statewide renewable energy standard.

Williams holds a bachelor’s degree in anthropology and environmental studies from Pitzer College and a master’s in environmental management from the Yale School of the Environment.