Laura Lengnick

Laura Lengnick is an award-winning soil scientist with 30 years of experience working as a researcher, policymaker, educator, activist and farmer to put sustainability values into action in U.S. food and farming. Her research in soil health and sustainable farming systems was nationally recognized with a USDA Secretary’s Honor Award in 2002 and she served as a lead author of the 2013 USDA report, Climate Change and Agriculture in the United States: Effects and Adaptation. Over the last decade, Laura has led federal, state and regional projects exploring agricultural climate solutions that cultivate resilient land, people and community. Laura served on the leadership team of NC-ADAPT in 2015, led the Climate-Resilient Agriculture Initiative in the Hudson Valley of New York in 2018, and led the design of Clemson University’s Multifunctional Agriculture Destination in 2019. She was the agriculture lead on the Natural and Working Lands Action Plan included in the North Carolina Climate Risk Assessment and Resilience Plan released in 2020. Laura is a Visiting Professor in the College of Agriculture, Forestry and Life Sciences at Clemson University and a member of the Planetary Health Lab at the University of Edinburgh (Scotland). She founded and owns Cultivating Resilience, LLC, a private firm that works with organizations of all kinds to integrate resilience thinking into operations and strategic planning. In 2021, Laura joined the Glynwood Center for Regional Food and Farming as the Director of Agriculture.  She resides in Asheville, NC.