Laura Giannini

Laura joined Waterkeeper Alliance in April 2021 as Organizing Director. Originally from Italy, she brings over 20 years of experience in the nonprofit and corporate social responsibility sector. She has dedicated her career advocating for climate change action while serving for organizations like the WHO, Oxfam International, Water.org, and Happy Hearts Fund. During the last 20 years, she lived and worked in the USA, Thailand, Japan, Ecuador, Peru, and Europe, where she supported climate change and disaster relief interventions.

Her passion for water preservation initiatives developed while living in Ecuador for a year, where she worked with indigenous communities in the Amazon region and advocated for rural community access to clean water and sanitation. Her love of travel and respect for cultural diversity is expressed through her many assignments in different parts of the world. She lived in Thailand for four years and led the development of climate change and disaster resilience programs. She then moved to Japan for another year and developed corporate social responsibility initiatives for international firms. She spent a year in Peru, calling for policies that invest in renewable and sustainable energy for rural communities. She moved back to the United States in 2018 in order to focus on the development of clean water initiatives across four different continents.  She also served as Emergency Food Security and Vulnerable Livelihoods Advisor for Oxfam International in Latin America.

Laura's career has led her to developing and managing strategic partnerships with a range of organizations, including ING Financial Institution, JP Morgan Chase, Chopard, CLINIQUE, Save the Children, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the Clinton Foundation.  A multi-lingual, she has had the privilege of working with a very diverse range of stakeholders, from nonprofit staff and volunteers to high-level donors and celebrities. She always believed in the effectiveness of a grassroots approach and bottom-up program development that is driven by beneficiaries' needs. She is also passionate about documentary filmmaking and photography, which has led her to produce short videos and endless photos during her travels.

Laura has a BA degree in Film Studies from the University of California at Berkeley, California and an MPA Degree in International Politics and Economics of Development from the School of International Political Cooperation and Development School at Rome, Italy. She currently lives in New York City with her husband.