Vice President for Research

Laura Briefer is the Director of Salt Lake City Department of Public Utilities (SLCDPU). She has served as Director of SLCDPU since 2016. Laura has worked at SLCDPU for 16 years in various areas of the organization and has devoted a 29-year career in natural resource, environmental, and public policy professions in the public, private, and non-profit sectors. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Environmental Studies from the University of California at Santa Barbara, and a Master of Public Administration from the University of Utah. Laura is a co-author of several peer-reviewed published papers alongside Utah’s academic institutions, focused on water resources, climate change, and watershed management. She serves on local and national boards, including the Provo River Water Users Association, National Association of Clean Water Agencies (https://www.nacwa.org/), the national Water Research Foundation, (https://www.waterrf.org/), and the Utah Water Task

Soren Simonsen is Executive Director of the Jordan River Commission, a public agency established by an Interlocal Cooperative Agreement in 2010. The Commission is comprised of over 30 local, state and federal government agencies, together with community nonprofit and business partners, working together to improve the Jordan River and its surrounding environment and watershed. Soren is an urban designer, architect, educator and entrepreneur. Over the past three decades, including 25 years of public service as an appointed and elected official, he has worked to create safe, healthy, beautiful, prosperous and resilient cities and natural places in Utah and the West. Soren earned a Master of Arts in Community Leadership at Westminster University in Salt Lake City, with an emphasis on organizational leadership, public policy and community organizing. His research and thesis focused on sustainable and equitable cities, and natural resource conservation, which has been his life’s work. He previously received a Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Texas at Austin, with a minor in urban planning, and an emphasis in environmental design, urban design and community and regional planning. In his free time, Soren loves to hike, bike, ski and paddle in Utah’s vast outdoors. You can find him regularly riding and paddling the Jordan River Parkway.