Farming The Future Leadership – Tara Laidlaw

Tara Laidlaw has worked at the intersection of formal and informal education for nearly 15 years, serving as a program manager, instructional designer, and teacher trainer in a wide range of settings. After seven years as the director of an educational farm in Massachusetts, she returned home to the west coast, where she now specializes in helping place-based, project-based, and informal education programs support the Next Generation Science Standards.

Tara holds a bachelor’s degree in Anthropological Sciences from Stanford University and a master’s degree in Natural Science and Environmental Education from Hamline University. In addition to her work in Oregon, she facilitates NGSS-focused workshops at regional and national conferences, and she writes articles about farm-and garden-based learning for national publications.

Tara is a kind hearted, outstanding educator. She is quoted “While my specialization is farm- and garden-based education, I’m equally at home working in other contexts such as wilderness preserves, summer camps, historic estates, and hybrid online/in-person settings. I love to help programs find creative solutions to drive student and teacher performance in out-of-the-box, outstanding ways. I am out to learn, and I hope you are too!”

Farming The Future is proud to have Tara on our leadership team and look forward to continuing development of creative solutions together. Ms. Laidlaw especially loves working with upper elementary and middle school students. That being so, check out her favorite garden enrichment program for middle school here! You can also access her website here!

Check out  some of her work!

Selected Conference Presentations:

Publications: