Laurie Heiss started her professional career at IBM, continuing at GE in consulting/management. She is a founding member of the Redding Preservation Society and the Fairfield County Preservation Network. Active on the boards of the Redding Land Trust and the Merritt Parkway Conservancy, she was the previous executive director of the conservancy.She has restored a 1767 saltbox and an 1830s farmstead where the barns and outbuildings are on Connecticut's Register of Historic Places.