Lauren Kissela is a senior research assistant in the parenting and family dynamics area at Child Trends. She supports planning and implementation of qualitative and quantitative data collection, data cleaning and analysis, and writing. She graduated from the George Washington University with a BS in public health and a minor in nutrition sciences.

During her undergraduate years, Lauren studied food policy environments across countries and their effect on childhood health outcomes. Previously, she interned with Bread for the World, where she worked on food security and climate change projects, and the American Diabetes Association, where she supported health research and plain-language communication strategies. Her areas of interest include writing about health and science, nutrition and food policy, childhood poverty, and climate change.