Lauren Walens, MA, is a senior research communications specialist on the client communications team at Child Trends. Her main responsibilities include serving as the communications director for the National Early Care and Education (ECE) Workforce Center, a joint research and technical assistance center working in support of the early childhood workforce. In this role, Lauren is accountable for the National ECE Workforce Center’s internal and external communications, including aligning messaging and dissemination activities across the core and collaborating partners.

Lauren has over 13 years of experience in developing strategic communications agendas, research translation, message creation, media relations, stakeholder and coalition engagement, strategic planning, team management, event planning, and spokesperson development. She is passionate about working at the intersection of communications, research and policy, and her career has largely been focused on health issues. Prior to joining Child Trends, Lauren served as the strategic operations and communications director at PolicyLab, a research center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, and she has also held communications roles with the American Association for Cancer Research and the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network.

Lauren received her master’s in health communications from Johns Hopkins University and holds a BA in public communication from American University. She lives in North Carolina and is working on her life goal of visiting all U.S. national parks.