Lauren is a systems thinker through and through. Trained as an architect but seasoned as an entrepreneur and designer, Lauren’s approach to change is grounded in the principles of regeneration with an emphasis on global food systems.
Before joining Stone Barns Center, Lauren served as Director of Circular Economy at IDEO, a leading design strategy firm. At IDEO, her work centered around the role of design in addressing issues such as waste, human behaviors, and business innovation. With a particular focus on bringing together disparate industry perspectives to affect change, Lauren’s recent IDEO client partners included World Wildlife Fund, Rockefeller Foundation, Starbucks, Nespresso, Mars, Danone, National Geographic, Cargill, McDonald’s, Rabobank, and Kroger, to name a few.
Prior to IDEO Lauren co-founded YR&G (now WSP), a prominent global sustainability consultancy, which she ran for nearly a decade. She also served as faculty at Columbia University, where she taught a masters-level course on sustainable technologies. Lauren is a passionate educator and public speaker known for energizing a room as she explores provocative and varying ideas in an effort to make them real and personal. Lauren holds a degree in architecture from the Rhode Island School of Design.
On the side: Lauren spends her weekends in the Catskill Mountains, where you’ll find her on a bicycle or x-country skis or cooking a meal over open flames.