Laura Birx

Laura is the deputy managing director of global climate strategies at Climate Lead, where she helps manage the team’s operations, processes, and partnerships, both within Climate Lead and externally. She has worked for two decades in the public and philanthropic sectors at the intersection of food systems, agriculture, public health, nutrition, and climate change. Before Climate Lead, Laura was the director of planning at ClimateWorks Foundation, where she helped establish strategic planning functions and led the monitoring and evaluation team.

Prior to ClimateWorks, Laura was the deputy director of strategy, planning, and management on the agricultural development team at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. There, she led a multi-year effort to establish the foundation’s first climate adaptation strategy and launched a series of new investments in climate change. She also worked at the U.S. Agency for International Development to help build the Feed the Future Initiative in Latin America and the Caribbean, sub-Saharan Africa, and South Asia. 

Laura has a bachelor’s degree from Colby College and a master’s degree in public health from the George Washington University. Based outside of Seattle, Washington, with her family, she believes in the power of philanthropy to support effective and equitable change to tackle the climate crisis.