Lauren is passionate about ensuring that all students have equal access to high-quality education opportunities. As a lawyer with over 10 years of experience, Lauren is an expert in legal analysis and policy development, project management, strategic planning, and equitable stakeholder engagement.
Lauren previously served as a Senior Policy Specialist at WestEd where she was a member of the Strategic Resource Planning & Implementation and School Choice teams. Her primary responsibilities on the Resource Planning team included developing policies and protocols to promote system productivity; aligning strategic planning and budget processes to ensure the efficient and equitable use of resources; and providing guidance on executing state and federal education laws at the state and local levels. At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Lauren co-authored a brief on the strategic allocation and management of federal stimulus funding; in 2021, she directed the creation of state-specific funding profiles depicting federal to state resource allocations under the American Rescue Plan Act.
On the School Choice team, Lauren led monitoring visits for Charter School Program grant recipients and supported the organization’s work on the National Charter School Resource Center. The latter included providing technical assistance on grants management, special populations, and high- quality authorizing. In 2020, she co-authored the Policy Framework for High-Quality Charter Authorizing Practices and the related state profiles. During her time at WestEd, Lauren also co-founded the Black Diaspora Network—an employee resource group designed to advance the organization’s diversity, equity, and inclusion priorities.
Before joining WestEd, Lauren was the Director of Policy at KIPP DC. In this role, she initiated robust infrastructure changes grounded in evidence-based practices; aligned student achievement standards and accountability systems with ESSA mandates; and, leveraged diverse stakeholder groups to meaningfully inform policy and rulemaking initiatives.
Lauren hails from New Jersey and resides in Washington, DC. She is an avid reader, and loves spending time with her friends and family, taking long walks, and traveling. After studying abroad in college, Lauren developed a strong affinity for Costa Rica and visits at least once a year! She received her Doctor of Jurisprudence from Indiana University—Maurer School of Law Bloomington and her Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Columbia University.