Laurel (she/her) is a geographer who studies our relationship with the more-than-human world—all the species in the community of life on Earth. She received her MS in Geography from the University of New Mexico in 2020 and wrote her thesis about wildlife gardening (and the ABQ Backyard Refuge Program) as an urban land ethic in practice. She started working at the Houston Museum of Natural Science astronomy department when she was 13 and worked in informal science education teaching about birds and stars for over three decades. She is on the advisory board for the Bernalillo County Open Space Master Naturalists, Urban Waters Federal Partnership, and is the associate director for the R.H. Mallory Center for Community Geography. She co-coordinates Albuquerque's participation in the world-wide City Nature Challenge each year and is enthusiastic about all community science projects that encourage people to develop a relationship with our wild neighbors.