Meet Laura Gobbi, our new Board President

By Ilana DeBare
We’re excited to welcome Laura Gobbi as the new president of Golden Gate Bird Alliance’s board!
(Just to avoid confusion: This is not the Executive Director position, which we are still in the process of filling. Laura was elected to succeed Carey Knecht as leader of our 14-person, all-volunteer board.)
Laura, the Senior Director of Alumnae Relations at Mills College, brings a wealth of non-profit experience as well as energy to the job.
Even more important, she brings a deep love of birds and of GGBA!
“Volunteering for Golden Gate Bird Alliance has been amongst the most meaningful experiences of my life,” she said. “It is both inspiring and humbling to belong to such an incredibly talented and committed community.”
As a child in Massachusetts, Laura shared her mother’s love of birds. But she first became an active birder about ten years ago, when she was working for her alma mater Oberlin College in Ohio as director of its international travel program.
“That took me out on trips to places like Panama, Ecuador and the Galapagos,” Laura recalled. “People came on those trips to bird. It was very contagious… It’s ironic that I saw my first American Pipit in the Canadian Arctic. I saw my first quetzal before I knew what a creeper was!”
Laura became active in the Audubon chapters near Oberlin. When she moved to the Bay Area to work at Mills in 2008, she sought out Golden Gate Bird Alliance.
“I wanted to learn about California birds and get to know the park system, and to do that as part of a community,” she said. “I’m a living advertisement for all the classes that GGBA offers. I’ve taken Bob Lewis and Rusty Scalf’s Birds of the Bay Area class about eight times. I’ve taken Beginning Birding with Anne Hoff, owls with Dave Quady, and raptors with Eddie Bartley, as well as the 2013 Master Birder class.”
However, she’s never managed to get into Denise Wight’s popular Birding By Ear class. If you’ve also ended up on the waiting list, take consolation in the fact that you have the Board President for company.
“Getting into Denise’s class is harder than getting dinner reservations at the French Laundry,” Laura joked.
Her favorite “birdy” moments? Hearing the ethereal sound of a double-trachea Slate-colored Solitaire in Honduras. (See video clip below.) Waking up to the song of a Swainson’s Thrush in the Sierra.  Seeing a field bursting with the reds and blues of Mountain Bluebirds in Panoche Valley.

“My favorite local birding spot is Martin Luther King Jr. Shoreline in Oakland, because of the extraordinary variety of birds so close up and easy,” she said. “I love the exquisite shapes and colors of the ducks there in winter.”
Laura’s goals as board president include increasing collaboration with other local Audubon chapters and conservation groups, building civic partnerships, and helping members engage more deeply with GGBA as volunteers.
“One of the unique aspects of GGBA is our volunteer base,” she said. “We can do more in recognizing our volunteers, and in giving volunteers more to do…  Fundraising is an important part of this. Every gift counts, no matter the size.”
In the immediate future,  Laura is on the board committee that is handling the search for a new Executive Director to succeed Mike Lynes, who is moving to Audubon California.  “I’m very excited about moving this process along and finding the very best candidate to lead this organization we love.”

——————————————

Laura will be at a number of GGBA events in upcoming months, including the Napa River field trip on Saturday April 12 and the Birdathon Awards Celebration on Sunday May 18.  She encourages you to introduce yourself and share your experiences with birding and GGBA. Click here for a roster and biographies of all GGBA board members.