Lauren was born and raised in Marin County, where she spent much of her childhood appreciating the recreational and agricultural lands of West Marin. She started her career as a structural engineer and architect, but soon realized her passion was for the people and the land surrounding the buildings, and steered her work towards agriculture.

Lauren has over a decade of experience helping to build and promote small-scale farmer profitability, empowerment, and sustainability. Her work has taken her all over the world to serve subsistence and commercial small-scale farmers across East Africa, Latin America, and Asia. With One Acre Fund in Kenya, she lived and worked in rural communities, designing programs and products in response to farmer needs. At Fair Trade USA and Enveritas, she worked with small-scale farm businesses across the globe, uplifting farmers’ voices and supporting them to overcome existing power dynamics in trading relationships. In all roles, Lauren has been a systems thinker who is values-driven and committed to putting farmers first.

This work led Lauren back home to California, where she found inspiration from Kitchen Table Advisors’ deep and trusted work in serving our food system leaders. Lauren first joined KTA in 2022 as the Director of Operations where she built out the Operations Team, led KTA's transition to a 501c3, stewarded annual planning, and set the course for program evaluation. She is deeply honored to step into the Co-Executive Director of Program role, as of February 2024, to support our Farm Business Advisors, Program Directors, and the broader community in continuing to bring our vision into reality - a vision where regenerative farmers and ranchers are thriving leaders of a vibrant, community-based economy that is rooted in the equitable distribution of power and resources.