Elizabeth Soderstrom

The vital nature of water has driven Elizabeth’s work. As part of the Strategic Partnerships team at the Water Foundation, Elizabeth works at the nexus of strategy and fundraising, helping to develop and deliver on fundraising strategies for safe drinking water and fresh water ecosystem restoration. She also leads the foundation in monitoring, evaluating, and learning.

Before joining the Water Foundation, Elizabeth was Senior Director of Conservation and Development at American Rivers and launched initiatives on in-stream flows and mountain meadow restoration. Prior to that, she was Director of the Sierra and Africa Rivers Program at the Natural Heritage Institute where she led programs in adaptive management in the context of river restoration and floodplain management.

For four years, she was Science, Engineering and Diplomacy Fellow at USAID’s Regional Center for Southern Africa based in Botswana. There, she worked on transboundary river management with a focus on the Okavango River. Elizabeth serves on the boards of the Consensus Building Institute, Stockholm Environment Institute – US, and TreeSisters. She also sits on the advisory board of the South Yuba Citizens League. She received a BA in English Literature, a BS in Biological Sciences, and an MS in Biological Sciences from Stanford University and a PhD in Wildlands Resource Science and River Science from UC Berkeley. Elizabeth lives with her husband, daughter, several dogs, goats and chickens on a tiny farm in Nevada City, CA.

_{Updated March 2020.}