Lauren directs complex research studies across the U.S. and internationally for a variety of clients in governmental agencies, academic institutions and international development organizations. She has nearly 25 years of experience in the field, and has managed projects with budgets ranging from "shoestring" to multimillion dollars. Lauren can employ her broad range of knowledge and skills at each stage of the survey lifecycle. Specifically, she designs and manages activities related to data collection, including developing operational and management plans for conducting the survey, instrument design and testing, developing training materials, leading training of field staff, overseeing and providing technical support during data collection, managing translation of questionnaires and developing interpretation methodology for surveys in multiple languages, developing quality assurance procedures, and conducting needs assessments with a wide range of internal and external stakeholders in the design phase.

Her work at NORC has included nationally representative surveys, surveys to support program evaluations, surveys that collected sensitive information from at-risk populations. On the Bank of Spain Survey of Household Finance and the Survey of Financial Literacy, she played a central role developing field protocols which then became models for studies mandated in all European Union and OECD nations, respectively. Domestically, her nine years as the project director of the General Social Survey (GSS) involved hands-on experience with all aspects of the survey lifecycle, including developing fielding protocols and overseeing data collection, working with the GSS board of overseers, and data dissemination.

Prior to her time at NORC, Lauren worked for three years at the University of Chicago, managing research projects in the social psychology department and at the Institute for Mind and Biology.