In 2019-2020, Lauren served as a Climate Fellow with the Butte County Department of Development Services to set up a framework that would allow community members and other stakeholders to collaborate for climate change adaptation and mitigation policies for the unincorporated areas of Butte County. There she focused heavily on close engagement with various community members involved with groups such as the Butte County Fire Safe Council, Regenerating Paradise, Camp Fire Restoration Project, and the Butte County Resource and Conservation District. For this project, Lauren was able to utilize her knowledge in community programming and relationship building, ecology, land management and restoration, and other topics related to watershed-level management and the differences between urban and rural environments. During her time with CivicSpark, she was able to collaborate with other 2019-20 CivicSpark fellows on workshops and mentorship programs related to racial equity for professionals within Local Government spaces.
Lauren grew up in the South Bay area of Los Angeles County as a first-gen Filipinx American and holds an AS in Biological Sciences from El Camino College and a BS in Ecological Management and Restoration with a Civil Engineering Minor in Sustainability in the Built Environment from UC Davis. They are currently working part time at a local Chico restaurant that focuses on community and sustainable food, and are applying to Master programs for Landscape Architecture for Fall 2021.
Current Fellows can ask them about: Intersectionality, Decolonization, Gender & Sexuality, Design, Climate Change (incl. issues related to wildfire), Youth Development, food and food competition shows, community/ social and infrastructure design, board games, professional development, self care in professional settings