Laura Crawford Williams is an accomplished entrepreneur, author, and philanthropist.

Laura’s diverse career path, attraction to philanthropy, and adventurous personality form the heart of the Foundation.

In 1999, she left the corporate world to become a professional wildlife and conservation photographer. She is recognized globally for her award-winning images in magazines such as National Geographic, Nature Conservancy, Audubon, and National Wildlife.

Laura previously worked in software during the dot com bubble of the nineties. The demanding hours and workload of a publicly traded company drained her. To recharge her spirit, she sought solace in nature and conservation work, often taking long walks through nearby forests and prairies.

Never intending to become a professional photographer, she began taking pictures of birds and other animals. A passion was born. She traveled all over the world, to some of its wildest places, to take pictures.

During those twenty years, she witnessed the extinction and wild lands crises—as well as a global shift away from compassion and charity, and toward selfishness and greed. She was determined to address this directly through image and story.

“I don’t understand why we allow the on-going loss of unique, fragile, and irreplaceable beauty. In a world full of people searching for meaning, why would we ignore the continued elimination of its wonders? Nature soothes, heals, and inspires. Humans can protect as well as thrive economically. The two are not and cannot be mutually exclusive.”

After 23 years of ‘taking’ pictures, Laura decided to shift her life to ‘giving’. She aspires to ignite intellectual curiosity and to inspire in others the excitement, amusement, and awe that she feels when immersed in nature.

Laura holds a master’s degree in Biomedical and Surgical Illustration from The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, as well as bachelor’s degrees in visual arts and scientific illustration. Her professional background includes medical illustration, 3D animation for pharmaceutical companies, and the production of educational and entertainment software in a variety of markets. She has worked for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and has financially supported the creation of Workiva, Inc., a company providing the first software-as-a-service solutions for complex reporting and disclosure challenges within public companies.