Lauren excels at making data meaningful – translating research into policy, programs, and effective community engagement. At State Health Partners, Lauren’s methodical approach helps clients better understand the publicly funded healthcare marketplace and refine how their goals and objectives can better the health care system. Lauren is experienced in grant writing and reporting for private foundation, state, and federal grants, and loves to help clients design high-quality, evidence-based programs.
In her previous role as the Program and Engagement Manager at Virginia Health Catalyst (formerly Virginia Oral Health Coalition), she led stakeholder engagement efforts at the regional and state levels, creating collaborative partnerships to improve oral health for the most vulnerable Virginians. She used strong facilitation skills to achieve consensus on a measurement framework for Virginia’s performance on oral health compared to national benchmarks: the Virginia Oral Health Report Card.
As a graduate student intern at the Virginia Department of Medical Assistance Services, Lauren provided research and analysis on innovative Medicaid delivery system reforms and payment models for behavioral health services. She worked closely with behavioral health program staff and stakeholders to develop proposed program goals, objectives, and quality and outcome measures for evaluation.
Prior to that, Lauren served as a social work intern at CrossOver Healthcare Ministry. In this capacity, she provided case management to patients and saw firsthand the need for comprehensive care of the whole person. She spearheaded a project with an interdisciplinary team to deliver coordinated medical care, case management, and emotional-behavioral support to Spanish-speaking patients with diabetes.
Lauren earned a Bachelor of Arts in geography from University of Mary Washington, and Master of Public Health and Master of Social Work degrees from Virginia Commonwealth University.