Lauren Gardner is originally from Houston and went to college at American University, where she pursued a degree in International Studies with minors in Graphic Design and Communications. After graduation, she moved to India for a year to work for the Alliance for Global Education. She joined the World Bank upon her return, where she worked on education research in Pakistan and Zambia. Lauren came to DSI to better merge her love of design and international development with her concern for social justice, especially issues surrounding development parity, peace and conflict resolution, and gender equality.

Lauren is currently based in Austin, Texas, where she works as a Design Researcher at the Design Institute for Health (part of the Dell Medical School at the University of Texas at Austin). Previously, she worked in government and international development at Reboot and the World Bank. Some recent projects from her work include improving the patient experience when leaving hospitals, designing a service to help people clear low-level warrants in NYC, and redesigning how countries apply for and receive vaccine support from Gavi.