Lauren is a proud Denver Native and loves being based in Colorado. She is an America Achieves National Fellow Alumni and a Founding Fellow for the Colorado Educator Voice Fellowship where she is currently in her second year of leading Fellows in Colorado. Lauren is passionate about turnaround schools and works as the Dean of Development at McGlone Elementary, in Denver, Colorado, where she was previously a 5th grade literacy teacher and teacher instructional coach. Prior to McGlone, she was based in Five Points at Cole Elementary for four year.
Lauren received her undergraduate degree from Claremont McKenna College and her masters from Regis University. Through her work she has taught in the classroom as well as trained educators. She has worked in education for the past decade in Los Angeles, St. Louis, Houston and Denver. Lauren has worked with Stand with Children, Teacher Voice (through the Gates Foundation), Teach for America, spoken on panels for Education Nation, and participates, facilitates and speaks at numerous National Conferences in Education. These experiences have helped her gain a deeper understanding of the policy and legislative aspects of the education system in America and the importance of teacher voice. She is deeply committed to CCSS implementation and has worked with multiple partnership organizations to present at conferences to enhance parental engagement and understanding around the CCSS and professional development with educators. She is also an America Achieves National & Lead Fellow, Cohort 2, and a Teacher Champion Fellow with the Collaborative for Student Success. She works with Student Achievement Partners and is Colorado Core Advocate and a National Core Advocate. A few of her awards includes: National Elementary Teacher of the Year- Nominee with Bammy Awards, Teach for America’s Alumni Award for Excellence in Teaching Award- selected as top 25 finalist nationally, selected for a State Wide Commercial on Educational Equity with One Chance Colorado, nominated for The Sue Lehman Award for Excellence in Teaching and “Outstanding Educator Award” with The Street Academy. Outside of her work with national education, Lauren is the Co-President and Co-Founder of an international nonprofit, The Ghana Educational Collaborative, which helps send children to school in Ghana and provides leadership opportunities to create the next generation of community change agents. Lauren truly believes that every child in our nation, and abroad deserve access to a quality education.