In 2015, Laurie Anderson moved with her family to Broomfield, Colorado, a community she quickly fell in love with because of its naturally beautiful open space. Soon she learned that a large-scale oil and gas drilling operation was being proposed uncomfortably close to her home. In response, she worked with her neighbors to urge the city council to prioritize public health and safety over the interests of the industry. She also completed intense research focused on the cumulative health and safety impacts of drilling and hydraulic fracturing on communities and co-authored a citizen-led risk analysis of the project. Advocating for her family’s community and—as a consultant for the League of Oil and Gas Impacted Coloradans—other communities has taught her to approach everything as a problem that can be solved. Laurie’s work has been featured in the Colorado Sun (for a second time here, and a third time here), Public News Service, Colorado Politics, CBS News, Estes Park Trail Gazette, Denver 7, The Cool Down, Westminster Window, Denver Post, and E&E News.
Laurie grew up in Blaine, Minnesota, and attended the University of Minnesota Institute of Technology, where she graduated with a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering in 1995. She has five children.
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