Lia Raz
Case Study Conservation AgronomistBiography
Lia joined the Water Initiative in January 2023. She works closely with her colleagues on the case study team, helping to produce and author AFT’s compelling, easy-to-read soil health case studies that quantify the economic, water quality, and climate outcomes associated with soil health practices implemented by row crop and almond growers using AFT’s soil health economic calculator (R-SHEC) tools. Prior to this role, she worked as a Farm Conservation Planner with the New England regional team, where she worked directly with farmers and other landowners and managers in Massachusetts to help them implement conservation practices on their farm, access federal funding, and protect their land as part of AFT’s partnership with NRCS. In 2016, Lia completed her Permaculture Design Certificate in Peru where she lived for ten months helping to transform an old coffee plantation into a regenerative food forest and self-reliant off-grid community. Upon her return to the States, she received her Master Composter Certification from New York City’s Department of Sanitation and worked on organic farms and biodynamic farms in Maine and Massachusetts. In March of 2020, she graduated from the New York Botanical Garden’s School of Professional Horticulture, where her focus was on regenerative agriculture.