Faren Wolter

Eastern North Carolina Sentinel Landscape Resilience Specialist

Faren joined LegacyWorks Group in June 2026 as the Eastern North Carolina Sentinel Landscape (ENCSL) Resilience Specialist. She collaborates with the ENCSL Partnership’s network of partner organizations to conceptualize and implement projects that enhance the resilience of ENCSL’s anchor military installations, defense-supporting communities, working-lands economies, and natural resources. Having previously lived and worked near Fort Bragg, her return to the Sandhills region is a meaningful homecoming.

A conservation leader and applied social scientist, Faren has worked at the intersection of wildlife and social sciences, collaborative partnerships, and strategic planning to improve conservation outcomes for people and wildlife. Her work advances science-informed approaches that bridge people, place, and purpose. Across state and federal agencies, Tribal governments, universities, land trusts, NGOs, and defense communities, Faren brings multi-sector partners together to build trust, find common ground, and align place-based needs with regional and national priorities. To turn those shared priorities into action, she leverages partner expertise and her knowledge of diverse funding mechanisms and frameworks to guide projects from concept to implementation. She holds a Ph.D. in Forestry with a research emphasis in collaborative ecosystem stewardship from University of Missouri - Columbia and a B.S. in Aquaculture, Fisheries, and Wildlife Biology from Clemson University.

In her free time, Faren can usually be found outdoors hiking and exploring local trails with her German Shorthaired Pointer. She also has a side interest in training working detection dogs for conservation and wildlife research projects.