Laura Keefer holds a B.S. in Geology and M.S. in Geography-Fluvial Geomorphology both from the University of Illinois at U-C. She is also a Certified Professional Hydrologist. Laura has been with the Illinois State Water Survey for over 37 years, is the head of the Watershed Science Section, and the Illinois State Hydrologist. Her research interests cover watershed-scale studies on hydrology, sediment and nutrient transport in Illinois, concentrating on quantifying the effectiveness of best management practices and landscape alterations on sediment and nutrient loading at the watershed scale. Additional interests focus on fluvial geomorphology as related to erosion and sedimentation processes in agricultural landscapes and developed a multi-scale geomorphic assessment protocol to evaluate stream channel stability. She has served on numerous federal, state, local and stakeholder technical committees, published 50 technical research reports and just as many presentations at professional and local conferences and symposiums. 

Dr. Chloe Wardropper is an assistant professor of natural resources policy and social science in the department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences at UIUC. Before coming to Illinois in 2022, she was an assistant professor at University of Idaho, a postdoctoral fellow with Purdue University and The Nature Conservancy’s reThink Soil Health initiative, and received a PhD in Environmental Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Wardropper studies how, and with what information, people and organizations take actions that affect water quality and quantity in working landscapes. Her work advances knowledge of how trust, risk perception, and public policy design shape decision spaces for conservation and adaptation.