Women discussing a disease that is affecting their cows in Rajasthan, India.
Lauren‘s professional path both unveiled itself as she made each step but was also built upon a desire to be part of an organization that cultivated empowerment in their practice of development. Lauren’s International Public Service Project was with Heifer International conducting a value chain analysis of goat milk in Rajasthan, India. This was a new skill for Lauren and she devoted many weekends and late afternoons in preparation.
Having experienced a taste for what this work can mean, Lauren did her Capstone Project working with Barefoot College in Tilonia, India setting up a monitoring and evaluation system. This experience at Barefoot College was the beginning of her work as a development professional.
Night School, Barefoot College, Tilonia, India.
Ugandan Bio Slurry Pit - an output of biogas plants used as fertilizers in the fields.
Upon graduation from the Clinton School, Lauren was awarded a fellowship at Heifer International’s headquarters, deepening her skills and expertise in program management and evaluation. Her first field experience at Heifer was in Uganda, conducting a forensic evaluation of a biogas project. Without hesitation, she trained a team of assistants and went off for several weeks conducting surveys and interviewing program participants.
Lauren participated in many evaluations for Heifer International – in Nepal, India, Latin America, the Caribbean, and the Philippines. Her previous life as a teacher came out as she trained and coached many teams of enumerators and worked with them as they walked from village to village in many corners of the world. Behind the scenes, Lauren was a master of large data sets, cleaning, organizing, and running analyses. She introduced Heifer staff to a metric for assessing women’s empowerment and mapping social networks. These techniques allowed Heifer International to test the efficacy of their theory of change and their effectiveness as a development organization.
“The forest is the lung of the Earth”, Peru.
Vietnam, 2014
While Lauren’s acumen of analytical skills was remarkable, she also modelled what it meant to be a mentor, she invited many other Clinton School students to participate in this work, to hone their skills and to find the joy in a purpose greater than themselves. Lauren deepened her ties with Barefoot College over her post graduate years. She became an indispensable and dearly loved part of their team, leading many initiatives in evaluation, writing grants, and supporting Barefoot College staff and Clinton School students all over the globe. In fall of 2019, Lauren began her work as an Evidence and Evaluation Services Manager with Winrock International. Lauren was a life long learner, she was always taking a course, doing a webinar, or experimenting with a new technique. Lauren showed us how we can create a life bounded only by our Intellectual curiosity, determination and spirit of adventure.
Lauren’s professional journey as told by her dear friend and colleague, Dr. Ellen Fitzpatrick.