When Lauren was a freshman at Purdue, God called her to international community development and water resources. Through different ministry opportunities in college, God grew Lauren's heart for missions, and it has been a life-long passion of hers to pursue international community development with an emphasis on missions and clean drinking water. After two internships in 2014 (Zambia and Zimbabwe) and 2015 (Zimbabwe), Lauren began ministry with New International by helping Africa Hope develop their clean drinking water initiative among Maasai communities in rural Kenya. At the same time she served as a data analyst for New International's Sponsorship team. She also completed projects in the Fort Myers area with both Florida Gulf Coast University and ECHO.
Her ministry work emphasizes community transformation through the placement of household water filtration units as well as water, sanitation, and hygiene health clubs among Maasai communities. Since 2018, Lauren has developed a working collaboration with Aqua Clara Kenya and overseen the growth and development of Running Water 5K and Transformative Water. Simultaneously, she has also pursued a Ph.D. at Penn State University in Civil Engineering studying household water insecurity. She has published multiple journal articles on household water insecurity and water, sanitation, and hygiene development in various global contexts.
With New International since 2015