About Lauren

Lauren is a scholar of the urban realm, transportation, and the local policy process. She applies her expertise to understand how technological advancement influences city life and policy-making. Currently, Lauren is a Ph.D. candidate at the Schar School for Policy and Government.

Lauren was a 2019 Google Public Policy Fellow, and served in residence at the Niskanen Center. Since 2017, Lauren has served as the Program Manager and Researcher for the Center for Transportation Public-Private Partnership Policy at George Mason University. Previous to joining the Center for Transportation Public-Private Partnership Policy in 2015 as a research assistant, she was a research assistant at the the Center for Regional Analysis at George Mason University.

Her research interests include the policy process and innovation, sustainable smart cities, emerging technologies, transportation policy, and technological diffusion. Her dissertation, “Hacking the Bureaucracy: Micro-mobility and the policy process - Policy-making the age of the smart city” investigates the applicability of established policy process models with respect to the introduction of novel technology at the local level of government, and examining local policy formation through the influence of policy entrepreneurs and narrative building, using micro-mobility to explore these processes.

As a consultant to the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), Lauren authored the document “Guidelines for the Development of a Smart Sustainable City Action Plan.” Lauren’s research has been featured by NAOIP, the Commercial Real Estate Development Association, and she is a content contributor on P3s for “Development of the Built Environment” from Dewberry/McGraw Hill. Lauren created a new course in the Master’s in Real Estate Development program at the Mason School of Business, REAL 690: Smart Cities and the Public Realm, first taught in summer of 2018. In 2017, due to her work and involvement in public-private partnership research, she was selected as the first Association for the Improvement of American Infrastructure (AIAI) Scholar. Lauren also received a State Science and Technology Institute (SSTI) Scholar award in 2016.

Lauren presents her research at numerous academic conferences including: Automated Vehicle Symposium, Transportation Research Board (TRB) Conference, Association of Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM), World Conference on Transport Research (WCTR), and North American Regional Science Council (NARSC). Her commentary has appeared in the American Conservative Magazine and the Niskanen Center research blog. Prior to her Ph.D. studies, Lauren worked in urban development and international trade in Buffalo, NY and Washington DC.

Lauren received a B.S. in Business Administration, magna cum laude, beta gamma sigma, and a M.A. in Geography from the State University of New York at Buffalo.