Science and Administrative Staff

Dr. Heather Lazrus was an experienced researcher in social and behavioral sciences with a passion for helping communities, particularly Indigenous communities, contribute to the research conversation about climate change and its impacts. Heather was co-Director of the Rising Voices Program for more than a decade. This program developed respectful and meaningful relationships with a network of Indigenous scholars and community representatives to co-create knowledge by combining Western and Indigenous perspectives. Heather’s experience helped numerous PIs and projects in the Innovator Program in both Cohorts 1 and 2 as a collaborator, mentor and Core Science Team member. She was able to see both opportunities for connection among interdisciplinary researchers and had a remarkable skill to help researchers calmly navigate misunderstandings or miscommunications that inevitably arise in interdisciplinary research. Heather succumbed to cancer in early 2023.