Laura Drake Schultheis

Laura Drake Schultheis (Ph.D.) graduated from Westmont College in 2006 with a B.S. in biology. She earned her California teaching credential in biology in 2007 and went on to teach science at the middle, high school, and college levels. In 2013 she returned to graduate school at UC Santa Barbara where she earned a Master’s degree and PhD focusing on the roles of drought and latent fungal pathogens in dieback and mortality of manzanita shrubs. In 2020 she joined the Westmont Biology Department as a tenure-track faculty member. Her current research interests include oak restoration ecology, fire ecology, and landscape management in the context of climate change.