(SFGate) - The survival of the fastest land animal on Earth is in the hands of a California horsewoman and former Napa Valley winemaker who decided she liked cheetahs better than grapes.

Laurie Marker left what to most people would seem like a dream job and idyllic life two decades ago so she could save the cheetah from extinction in the southern African republic of Namibia, where she now lives.

The 60-year-old founder of the Cheetah Conservation Fund has since turned herself into one of the world’s foremost cheetah experts and a creative force in the protection of native predators and the promotion of sustainable agriculture — a melding, if you will, of the top and bottom of the food chain.

Her endeavor, which has an annual budget of $2 million, about a quarter of it raised in the Bay Area and North America, has become remarkably all-encompassing. The 90 employees at her Namibian ranch work not just on wildlife conservation, but farming and ranching assistance programs, economic development and ecosystem protection.

Her solutions to the cheetah crisis in Africa are helping transform Namibian culture and values and may also provide the answer to the clashes in the American west between ranchers and wildlife conservationists who seek to return big predators, including the gray wolf and grizzly bear, to the native lands they once roamed.

“I always say, 'save the cheetah, change the world,’ ” Marker said. “We’ve got a short period of time, maybe 10 years to change the course of the world and save the cheetah. If we can get the cheetahs right, then we can begin to save other species.”

In many ways, Marker’s struggle to save cheetahs signifies the evolution, the coming of age, of the global conservation movement. Her tale is an illustration of how an attempt to save one animal created a cascade of effects, including the breeding of guardian dogs to protect goats and other livestock. It is an example of how a singular effort to help a wild predator can also help an entire community.

Marker grew up in the Rolling Hills Estates area of Palos Verdes. The historic ranching community, which dates back to the first Spanish rancho in California., has an extensive network of horse trails that Marker, who had her own horse by the time she was 4, took full advantage of. She was a dedicated member of the Pony Club, Future Farmers of America and 4-H, whose pledge for clearer thinking, greater loyalty and larger service to “my community, my country, and my world” the young equestrian took to heart.

Although she started out as a horsewoman, competing on horse shows and competitions, she had a soft spot for all animals.

“I was one of those kids who loved my horse, dogs and animals more than anything else,” she said.

She moved with her family to San Jose when she was a teenager and graduated from Leland High School in 1971. She attended San Francisco State University and was intending to become a veterinarian, but the emerging wine industry in the Napa Valley caught her eye. She enrolled in the viticulture program at Napa College and re-opened the Pope Valley Winery, north of rural Napa County town of Angwin, which had been closed since prohibition. She also began operating a dairy goat farm.

The young and restless Marker was soon seeking greener pastures in Oregon, where she bought property, moved her goat farm and founded Jonicole Vineyards. But the wine business in the 1970s wasn’t what it is today. It didn’t make her rich or, it turns out, pay many of her bills.