October 27th, 1979 - February 26th, 2023
Heather MacAulay Lazrus died in her home lovingly embraced by family and good friends on Sunday evening the 26th of February. She lay calmly while farewells and tributes flowed in from all over the world. Heather was a beloved mother to Forrest Lazrus Kehoe (aged 8) and wife to Ken Kehoe, an adored daughter to Suzanne MacAulay and Allan Lazrus, and a treasured sister, aunt, niece, and friend to many. Heather was born in Denver, Colorado, on October 27, 1979, under a full moon that was quickly obscured by the first severe blizzard of the season. That same night the Zuñi War Gods were repatriated from Denver’s Museum of Natural History to their spiritual home in New Mexico.
Perhaps this combination of meteorology and anthropology helped shape the course of Heather’s career as an environmental anthropologist investigating the social and cultural impacts of weather and the changing climate on global communities.
Heather grew up in the forests and meadows around Magnolia Road until her family moved to New Zealand for a decade. She attended Waldorf and Montessori schools in Boulder, Colorado, and finished her elementary education at Baseline Middle School before heading to the Southern Hemisphere. Heather graduated from Whanganui High School in New Zealand. She returned to the United States briefly to attend Bennington College in Vermont, where she was introduced to the interdisciplinary field of environmental studies. Her BA with Honours degree was achieved at Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand. Heather earned her Ph.D. in anthropology with an emphasis on environmental anthropology from the University of Washington in 2009.
Heather’s perpetual position as a social scientist among groups of physicists, meteorologists, modelers, and atmospheric chemists began with a postdoctoral appointment at the National Weather Center in Oklahoma, the nexus of tornado research. It was there that she initially pursued her interdisciplinary and collaborative approach to extreme weather and climate change research focusing on the “cultural mechanisms through which all weather and climate risks are perceived, experienced, and addressed” in the United States, New Zealand, and in Tuvalu, a Pacific Nation State, where she did her dissertation research.
Heather joined the Mesoscale and Microscale Meteorology Laboratory at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in 2011. As a Project Scientist, Heather continued to involve diverse isciplines in her investigations of risk perceptions related to extreme weather and climate change affecting some of the most at-risk populations on the planet.
Respect and compassion toward others were the hallmarks of Heather’s work and life, which motivated her to co-found and co-direct the Rising Voices Center for Indigenous and Earth Sciences. According to an announcement from NCAR, her ability to work sensitively and collaboratively with Indigenous communities, “helped Rising Voices thrive and ultimately resulted in the successful $20 million funding of the Rising Voices, Changing Coasts Hub. This project, led by Haskell Indian Nations University, serves as a trailblazing example of convergence science centering Indigenous sciences and practices.”
In the words of other colleagues and friends expressed in the last few days, “Heather was a courageous and kind leader who valued relationships and people above all else, and in doing so showed us all a gentler, kinder, and deeply effective way of doing science.” “Heather has inspired so many early-career scientists who will carry her beautiful legacy forward — guided not only by her research and community building but also by the values that led her work. Heather taught us that leadership can be kind, creative, caring and inclusive.”
And this beautifully expressed homage from Heather’s co-Director of Rising Voices, “Heather selflessly, and with her elegance and grace, created spaces and places for so many who were previously silenced and excluded within the boundaries of non-Indigenous science and its institutions. It’s difficult to grasp how far her reach is because she centered others and not herself in this work.” Heather was a scholar and scientist, but above all else she was a loving mother, wife, daughter, sister, aunt, niece, and friend. Those who knew her describe the warmth, kindness, and thoughtfulness that she emanated, her inquisitive attitude and unwavering commitment to following her passions, and her courage, strength, grace, and dignity. She was “a petite invocation of mystical grace and meditative quiet,” and a light in all our lives.
Her presence helped to sustain us and offered us resilience at difficult times in our lives. Even in the last months of her life, she found the space to offer words of peace and empathy to others as they faced their own difficulties. She was a uniquely beautiful person. Our deeds in life are unique because our lives are unique, and Heather’s life was singular. She was born with celestial and cultural significance and as she passed, the Northern Lights stretched all the way to Colorado to guide her way.
In lieu of flowers or other gifts, donations should go to her son Forrest’s 529 education fund. For direct donation to Forrest’s fund using banking routing number and account number ($15 website minimum, US banks only), please go to https://www.ugift529.com/ and enter Forrest’s Ugift code: K5T-B7K. To donate using a credit card, Google Pay, or Paypal, please go to https://www.gofundme.com/f/forrest-lazrus-kehoes-education-fund
A Celebration of Life for Heather will be held in the Boulder area on Saturday, July 22, 2023. If you would like to be contacted with further information about this event, please complete this form: https://tinyurl.com/6fdny24s
