Laura Pustarfi, Ph.D., is a writer, scholar, and integral ecologist.

She is a lecturer in Philosophy and Religion at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS), teaching in both the Ecology, Spirituality, and Religion program as well as in the Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness program. Her scholarly work examines trees and plants in Western thought with particular focus on an arboreal and vegetal ontology and ethics that respects plants themselves. She is co-editor with Dr. David Macauley of the volume The Wisdom of Trees: Thinking Through Arboreality, published by SUNY Press in June 2025. Laura has presented at academic conferences nationally and internationally including those of the International Association for Environmental Philosophy (IAEP), TORCH Oxford, the Pacific Association for the Continental Tradition (PACT), the International Society for Environmental Ethics (ISEE), the Interdisciplinary Conference on Psychedelic Research (ICPR), and Awareness Lectures on Psychedelic Science (ALPS). She is on the board of The Plant Initiative, an associate editor of the Plant Perspectives journal, and she also has an enduring interest in the arts.

Her professional background includes events and project management, research, analysis, and writing for both business and non-profit organizations. She is the Director of the Psychedelic-Assisted Therapies and Research Certificate Program at CIIS where she is responsible for the administration of the certificate program training mental health professionals in the field of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area on occupied Indigenous territory of the Coast Miwok and Southern Pomo, now recognized as the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria.

Pustarfi is said exactly the way it's spelled: Puh-star-fee.

 
 

RESEARCH INTERESTS

  • Plant Studies

  • Integral Ecology

  • Environmental Humanities

  • Environmental Philosophy

  • Phenomenology

  • Religion & Ecology

  • Psychedelic Philosophy

  • Western Philosophy

See my LinkedIn profile for my professional resume.

 
 
“The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the Eyes of others only a Green thing which stands in the way… As a man [sic] is, so he sees. ”
— William Blake
 
 

Writing & Speaking

Laura is available for writing opportunities and speaking engagements. Please contact me if you’d like to discuss an invitation.

Coaching

Laura offers individuals dissertation and planning support under her business, Starline Coaching. She is not currently taking new clients.