Laura Jackson is Director of the Tallgrass Prairie Center and Professor of Biology at the University of Northern Iowa. She received a bachelor's degree in Biology from Grinnell College, and a Ph.D. in Ecology (minor in Agronomy) from Cornell University. Courses taught at UNI include undergraduate labs in organismal diversity and ecology; combined lecture/lab courses in applied ecology, conservation biology, restoration ecology, and ecology of agricultural systems; and graduate courses in ecosystem management and landscape ecology. Her research has focused on the restoration of biological diversity in agriculture landscapes, and the dynamics of seeds and seedlings in tallgrass prairie restoration. She is past member and chair of the Advisory Board for the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture and the State Preserves Advisory Board, and currently serves on the steering committee for Monarch Joint Venture. In 2002 she and coeditor Dana Jackson published The Farm as Natural Habitat: Reconnecting Food Systems with Ecosystems (2002). She is frequently invited to speak to general and academic audiences on the restoration of biodiversity in agricultural landscapes.