Lauren is the Research Director at the Sitka Sound Science Center. In this position, she oversees the research portfolio for the Sitka Sound Science Center, working with community partners to assess current research needs and building collaborative teams of experts to help answer these needs. Lauren grew up on Kachemak Bay in the northern Gulf of Alaska. She received her bachelor’s degree in marine biology at Stanford University, where she was introduced to the exceptional value of biological field stations during her time at Stanford’s Hopkins Marine Laboratory. She returned to Alaska to pursue her master’s in marine biology at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, and then moved to Sitka to join SSSC as a Research Biologist in 2014. After a few years of collaboration with visiting University of California Santa Cruz professor Dr. Kristy Kroeker, Lauren joined her lab as a PhD student to research the impacts of ocean acidification and warming in Southeast Alaska’s kelp forests. She conducted much of this research in Sitka using the Science Center’s wet lab and dive facilities, so never really “left” SSSC during her time as a graduate student. Over the last 10 years of conducting and coordinating research in coastal Alaska, Lauren has built deep partnerships with rural communities, state agencies, and tribal organizations. She specializes in community ecology, seaweed physiology, and climate change impacts within high latitude marine ecosystems, and she has extensive, year-round scientific diving experience in Alaskan waters. Lauren is passionate about science education and has received extensive training in equity-minded and anti-racist pedagogy practices as applied to science research and education. She loves hiking, harvesting, and exploring the natural world, especially alongside her husband, toddler, and loyal cattle dog.

Learn more about Lauren's research accomplishments here.