Lauren White (She/Her/Hers)

Lauren was the Sustainability Program Manager for the Office of Sustainability. Her role included strategic sustainability planning, broad-scale program implementation, stakeholder engagement, and supporting educational and behavioral initiatives across campus and community. Lauren brought more than 15 years of industry experience to the University of Arizona. She first joined campus in December 2017 as the Office of Sustainability's Coordinator for Campus Sustainability Programs, where she led a team of student activists and managed the University of Arizona Green Fund, a $400,000 annual tuition carve-out dedicated to advancing environmental stewardship and social justice on campus. In her most recent role, Lauren directed the Office's communications program, supervised the Sustainability Communications Coordinator, and Co-Chaired the University's inaugural Climate and Sustainability Action Plan effort.

Prior to her position at the University of Arizona, Lauren served as Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI) Program Coordinator at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory (GLERL) in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where she provided senior-level project management for NOAA's $15M portfolio of GLRI projects. She also Co-Chaired the NOAA Great Lakes Regional Collaboration Communications Team, which received a National Telly Award under her joint tenure for its production of an educational video on NOAA's freshwater work in the Great Lakes.

Lauren attended graduate school at the University of Michigan, where she taught two undergraduate courses in environmental stewardship psychology as a Graduate Student Instructor and served as a Climate Adaptation Intern for NOAA, creating a toolkit of resiliency resources and best practices for Great Lakes municipalities. She was honored to receive the University of Michigan's William B. Stapp Award for Excellence in Environmental Education in 2015. Before obtaining her graduate degree, Lauren spent nearly eight years training hundreds of team members on recycling and composting, and advancing corporate sustainability, community outreach, and customer experience efforts for Whole Foods Market in Chicago. She was delighted to receive the Team Member of the Year Award twice for her contributions.

Lauren holds a Master of Science degree in Natural Resources and Environment: Behavior, Education, and Communication from the University of Michigan (2015), a Permaculture Design Certificate from the University of Wisconsin (2009), and a Bachelor of Arts in English with a minor in French from Northern Arizona University (2002). In her free time, she is an avid kayaker, writer, singer, and kombucha enthusiast.